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Prag^rH  for  (Sahn^ 


Books  by 
SAMUEL  McCOMB,  D.D. 

GOD'S   MEANING   IN   LIFE 

PRAYER— What  It  Is  and  What  It  Does 

FAITH— The  Greatest  Power  in  the  World 

THE    NEW   LIFE— The  Secret  of  Happiness  and  Power 


HARPER   &    BROTHERS,  NEW    YORK 
(Established  1817] 


'>i< 


^rag^rB  for  C&&ag 

ff^tth  a  series  of  Meditations 
from  Modern  Writers 


COMPILED   AND    EDITED   BY 

SAMUEL  McCOMB,  D.D. 

Author  of  "faith"  "the  new  life" 
"god's  meaning  in  life"  etc. 


HARPER  y  BROTHERS   PUBLISHERS 

NEW    YORK    AND    LONDON 

■^ ^ ^ 


Prayers  For  Today 


Copyright,  1918,  by  Harper  &  Brothers 

Printed  in  the  United  States  of  America 

'Published  March,  1918 

c-s 


3n  Mtmantim 

Wxiixmn  O^raliam.  iM.i. 

^urDpfiburn  K^ouse,  Count?  ©own,  3!relant» 
3n  fmnlifiJ|tp,  hmotrli;    in  btrtg,  ttntiring; 
in  Hrmirr,  a  fnUnuipr  nf  Him  tttljo  ramp 
"not  to  bt  miniHtrrpb  untu,  bnt  tn  miniatrr." 


NO.  TITLE  PAGE 

I.  A  Prayer  for  the  Spirit  of  Prayer      ...       1 

Author  Unknown 

II.  For  Transformation  of  the  Past      ....      3 

George  Matheson 

III.  For  Perfect  Trust  in  God 5 

John  Henry  Newman 

IV.  For  Devotion  to  God 7 

From  Henry  Vlllth's  Primer  (Modernized  and 
adapted) 

V.  For  Humility 9 

/.  G.  Whittier 

VI.  For  the  Fulfilment  of  Love's  Desires     .     .     11 

H.   Youlden  (Adapted) 

VII.  For  the  Joy  of  Brotherhood 13 

George  Matheson 

VIII.  For  Knowledge 15 

Henry  S.  Nash 

IX.  For  Faith 17 

W.  E.  Orchard 

X.  For  Growth  in  Faith  and  Virtue     ....     19 

James  Martineau 

XI.  For  Freedom  from  Evil  Thoughts     ....     21 

Samuel  McComb 

XII.  For  Divine  Strength  in  Life  and  in  Death  .     23 

John  Henry  Newman 

XIII.  For  a  Heroic  Temper 25 

Charles  H.  Brent 

XIV.  For  Grace  to  Commune  with  Things  Eternal    27 

G.  A.  Simcox 

XV.  For  Strength  and  Light 29 

Benjamin  Jowett 

•^  vii  *h 


(Eottt^tttB  of  J^rayfrH  ^ 

TITLE  PAGE 

For  Security  in  God 31 

Charles  Wagner 

For  a  Life  in  Tune  with  the  Infinite  .     .     33 
W.  J.  Robinson 

For  an  Obedient  and  Unselfish  Spirit       .     35 

Samuel  McComb 
A   Morning   Prayer   for   Blessing  on  the 
Work  of  the  Day 37 

Walter  Rauschenbv^ch 

For  a  Right  Place  in  Life 39 

/.  O.  Rankin 
An  Evening  Prayer  for  Self-knowledge   .     41 

James  Martineau 
For  Freedom  and  Hope 43 

Samuel  McComb 
A  Morning  Prayer  for  Belief  in  the  Beauty 
AND  Work  of  Life 45 

S.  A.  Tiffle 

A  Morning  Prayer  for  Purity  and  Lo\t:    .     47 
Author  Unknown 

An  Evening  Prayer  of  Thanksgiving     .     .     49 

Author  Unknown 
For  the   Joy   of  Reconciliation,   Liberty, 
AND  Sympathy 51 

J.  H.  Jowett 
For  Spiritual  Strength 53 

Sir  Rabindranath  Tagore 
A  Prayer  of  Desire        55 

Christina  G.  Rossetti 
For  Faithfulness  in  Work  and  Trial    .     .    57 

James  Martineau 
For  Sincerity  in  the  Work  of  Life  ...    59 

George  A.  Miller 
For  Joy 61 

Henry  S.  Nash 

viii  *i* 


NO. 

XVI. 
XVII. 
XVIII. 
XIX. 

XX. 
XXI. 
XXII. 
XXIII. 

XXIV. 

XXV. 

XXVI. 

XXVII. 

XXVIII. 

XXLX. 

XXX. 

XXXI. 


TITLE  PAGE 

For  Fellowship  with  God  A>fD  with  Man  .     63 

Edward  S.  Ames 

For  Grace  to  Profit  by  a  Thorn  in  the  Flesh     65 
W.  De  Witt  Hyde 

For  Consecration  of  the  Unconscious  Life    67 
Thomas  Arnold 

For  a  Spirit  of  Helpfulness 69 

Walter  Rauschenbusch 
A  Penitential  Prayer 71 

Walter  Rauschenhv^ch 

For  Self-surrender  to  God 73 

Samuel  McComb 

For  the  Love  of  Friends 75 

Author  Unknoum 

For  the  Vision  of  Christ  in  All  Souls    .     77 
R.  W.  Gilder 

For  Victory  in  the  Battle  of  Life      .     .     79 
George  Dawson 

A  Morning  Prayer  for  Encouragement      .     81 
J.  R.  Miller 

An  Evening  Prayer  for  Divine  Help  and 

Blessing         83 

R.  L.  Stevenson 

For  the  Blessedness  of  Self-giving      .     .     85 

W.  Angus  Knight 
A  Penitential  Prayer       87 

Samuel  McComb 

For  the  Spirit  of  Kindness 89 

George  A.  Miller 

For  a  Spirit  of  Love  to  God  and  Man    .    91 

Author  Unknown 
For  Inspiration  in  Service        93 

George  A.  Miller 

For  a  Fruitful  Life 95 

Charles  J.  Ayncs 

ix  >i* 


^  (Eontenta  nf  Prag^ra  ^ 

NO.  TITLE  PAGE 

XLIX.  For  a  Sense  of  the  Divine  Presence  ...      97 
Andrew  V.  V.  Raymond 

L.  For  Self-control 99 

Lucy  R.  Meyer 
LI.         For  a  Quiet  Heart 101 

George  Dawson 

LII.        For  a  Generous  Spirit 103 

George  Matheson 

LIII.      For  the  Influence  of  the  Divine  Spirit    .     .    105 

Edwin  Hatch 
LIV.       For  Patience 107 

Isaac  0.  Rankin 
LV.        For  the  Divine  Indwelling 109 

E.  B.  Pusey 
LVI.      For  Devotion  to  the  Kingdom  of  God    .    .     Ill 

Mary  Carpenter 
LVII.     For  Spiritual  Refreshment 113 

Frances  P.  Cobbe 
LVIII.  For  the  Graces  of  Penitence  and  Courage    115 

R.  L.  Stevenson 
LIX.      For    Fellowship    with    God    in    Lo\^    and 

Service 117 

W.  Floyd  Tomkins 
LX.        For  a  True  Vision  of  Life 119 

Samuel  McComb 
LXI.      For  Spiritual  Reality 121 

Samuel  McComb 
LXII.    An  Evening  Prayer  for  the  Presence  of  God    123 

Author  Unknown 
LXIII.  For  a  Sense  of  God's  Love 125 

Frances  P.  Cobbe 
LXrV.  In  the  Evening  of  Life 127 

Author  Unknown 
LXV.     For  a  Sense  of  the  Soul's  Greatness    .     .     129 

George  Matheson 

5  X  5 


TITLE  PAGE 

Thanksgiving  for  Unanswered  Prayer   .     131 
H.  W.  Beecher 

A  Prayer  of  Adoration       133 

Samuel  McComb 

On  New  Year's  Day 135 

Samuel  McComb 

A  Christmas  Prayer 137 

Author  Unknown 

An  Easter  Prayer       139 

W.  E.  Orchard 

For  Spiritual  Blessing  in  Sorrow       .     .     143 
Author  Unknown 

For  an  End  of  War 145 

Author  Unknown 

For  Faith  in  the  Victory  of  Goodness    .     147 
W.  De  Witt  Hyde 

A  Soldier's  Prayer 149 

Sir  George  Colby 

For  Trust  in  God's  Guidance     ....     151 
Phillips  Brooks 

For  Courage  in  Bereavement     ....     153 
W.  De  Witt  Hyde 

For  Divine  Help  in  Every  Emergency   .     155 
P.  C.  Mozoomdar 

In  Behalf  of  a  Friend  Who  Has  Passed 

INTO  THE  Unseen 157 

W.  E.  Gladstone 

For  Divine  Instruction 159 

Christina  G.  Rossetti 
In  Memory  of  a  Friend  Who  Obeyed  His 
Country's  Call 161 

Samuel  McComb 

For  International  Peace 163 

Samuel  McComb 

xi  *i* 


Qlonlf ntH  nf  Prayers 


^ 


NO.  TITLE  PAGE 

LXXXII.      Thanksgiving  for  the  Revelation  of  a 

Future  Life ■    .     .     .     .     165 

W.  De  Witt  Hyde 

LXXXIII.    A  Prayer  of  Intercession  foe  the  World     167 

Author  Unknown 

LXXXIV.     A  Prayer  for  Our  Enemies 169 

Samuel  McCovih 

LXXXV.      A  Prayer  for  One  Who  Has  Passed  Over     171 
Basil  Wilberforce 

LXXXVI.     For  Comfort  in  the  Presence  of  Death     173 
George  B.  Foster 

LXXXVII.  A  Meditational  Prayer  for  Peace  .    .    .     175 
Walter  Lowrie 


^ 


Xll 


^ 


TITLE  PAGE 

The  Inmost  Meaning  of  Prayer  Is  Harmony'  with  the 
Divine  Will       1 

Benjamin  Jowett 
Atonement  for  Past  Sins  Is  Every  Man's  Duty    .     .      3 

John  Caird 

The  Mutual  Indwelling  of  God  and  the  Soul  Is  the 

Be-all  and  the  End- all  of  Life 5 

Henri-Frederic  Aviiel 

The  Highest  Joy  Is  the  Joy  of  Serving  God   ....      8 
Elwood  Worcester 

Only  in  Sorrow  Is  Power  Transmitted   from   One 
Soul  to  Another 10 

W.  Boyd  Carpenter 
From  Goodness  Virtue  Always  Goes  Forth   ....     11 

George  Harris 

Justice  Is  the  Harmony  of  All  Virtues 13 

Newman  Smyth 

Genuine   Science   Has   No   Quarrel   with    Genuine 

Piety 15 

Augtiste  Sabatier 

Faith  Is  to  Religion  What  Experiment  Is  to  Science     18 
Samuel  McComb 

Let  No  Untoward  Experience  Weaken  the  Suprem- 
acy OF  THE  Soul 19 

H.  Youlden 

Thoughts  of  Evil  Are  Not  Necessarily  Evil  Thoughts    21 
F.  R.  Tennant  ^ 

The  Present  Life  Should  Be  Lived  in  the  Light  op 

THE  Life  to  Come 23 

R.  W.  Church 

*i*  xiii  *i^ 


►f-  (Eontrntfl  of  iErhttatuinfi  ^ 

TITLE  PAGE 

Of  the  Wonderful  Power  of  Our  Wishes    ....     25 
M.  Maeterlinck 

Blessedness  Comes  Not  by  Escape  from  Trouble,  but 
BY  Victory  Over  Trouble 28 

Francis  G.  Peabody 
Renunciation  Is  Each  Man's  Own  Secret     ....     30 

Jonathan  Brierley 

We   Must   Interpret   the    Universe    by    What    We 

Find  in  the  Human  Soul 31 

Author  of  "The  Creed  of  Christ" 

All  Things  Are  Possible  to  the  Man  Who  Loves 
Goodness 34 

Samuel  McComb 
The  Unattainable  Ideal  Is  Also  a  Part  of  Man   .     .     36 

A.  Seth  Pringle-Pattison 

Our  Work  Should  Be  the  Expression  of  Our  Best  Self    37 
Henry  C.  King 

"Every  Man's  Life  Is  a  Plan  of  God" 39 

W.  J.  Tucker 

In  Self-examination  Seek  to  Get  a  Clear  Vision  of 

Yourself 41 

John  Ruskin 

The  Morality  of  Acquisition  Must  Be  Supplanted 

by  the  Morality  of  Sacrifice 43 

Charles  Wagner 

Every  Man  Can  Become  a  Hero  after  the  Pattern 
OF  Christ 46 

L.  H.  Schwab 
God  Is  the  Only  True  Motive  of  Conduct 47 

T.  T.  Hunger 

True  Life  Consists  Alone  in  LjpvE 50 

Leo  Tolstoi 

Christ  Does  Not  Trust  Himself  to  a  Divided  Heart    51 
Author  of  "Patience  of  Hope" 

^  xiv  'I^ 


>i'  (iaxxUnta  of  iHfliUatuina  >i* 

TITLE  PAGE 

Our  Duties,  Not  Our  Rights,  Have  the  First  Place     53 
Mandell  Creighton 

No  Compromise  in  the  Affairs  of  the  Spirit    ...     55 
Samuel  McCorub 

The  Best  Man  Is  the  Truest  Man 58 

Phillips  Brooks 

The  Higher  Righteousness  Exceeds  All  Legal  Re- 
quirements Inasmuch  as  It  Is  Motived  by  Love    .     59 
C.  F.  Barbour 

Joy  Is  the  Keynote  of  True  Religion 61 

J.  C.  Murray 

Prayer  Acts  on  Character  and  Character  Reacts 

on  Prayer 63 

Edward  S.  Ames 

True  Prayer  Seeks  to  Bend  Man's  Will   to   God's 

Will 66 

From  ^^ Religion  and  Medicine" 

By  Obedience  to  These  Rules  We   Can   Form   Ant 
Habit  We  Desire 67 

W.  S.  Bruce 

We  Ought  to  Help  All  Who  Need  Our  Help    ...     69 
H.  Youlden 

The    New    Life    Makes   Atonement   to   the   Social 

Order 72 

Samuel  McComb 

Evil    Is    Overcome   Not    by   Attacking    It,   but   by 
Setting  Our  Minds  on  Virtue 73 

George  Steven 
Pride  Is  a  Denial  of  the  Soul's  Greatest  Good     .     .     76 

W.  De  Witt  Hyde 
What  Makes  a  Man  a  Christian? 78 

James  Stalker 

Every  Man  Is  Called  to  Be  a  Soldier  in  the  Spir- 
itual Order 79 

Benjamin  Jowetl 

►p  XV  *h 


^  (Hantmta  at  MshxUtxanB  ^^ 

TITLE  PAGE 

Every  Vision  Implies  a  Task       81 

Phillips  Brooks 

The  Main  Object  of  Religion  Is  Not  to  Get  a  Man 
INTO  Heaven,  but  to  Get  Heaven  into  Him.    .    .      83 
Lord  Avebury 

Self-forgetftjlness  Is  the  Secret  of  Strength    .    .      85 

George  Matheson 
The    True    Penitent    Shrinks    from    No    Atoning 

Pain 88 

A.  L.  Sears 
The   Truly   Kind    Spirit   Seeks   Opportunities   of 

Serving  Others 89 

Francis  Paget 

Our  True  Environment  Is  God       91 

J.  R.  Illingworlh 

The  Greatness  of  Being  Human 93 

Woodrow  Wilson 
Faith  Finds  God    in  the  World   and  the  World 

in  God 95 

W.  R.  Inge 
The   End   of  Human  Evolution   Is  Companionship 

with  God 97 

E.  H.  Rowland 
Character  and  Action  Are  Both   Essential  to  a 

Harmonious  Life 99 

Phillips  Brooks 

Faith  Can  Cope  with  Every  Fear 101 

Samuel  McComb 
A  Vision  of  the  Future  Wherein  All  Peoples  Are 
Seen  Contributing  to  the  Common  Welfare  of 

the  Race 104 

G.  M.  Gwatkin 
Evil    Desire    to    Be   Replaced   by   the    Spirit   of 

Holiness       105 

Sir  John  Seeley 

^  xvi  ^ 


*i*  dontpntH  of  iUpbttattona  ^ 

TITLE  PAGE 

True  Patience  Is  the  Endurance  of  III  in  a  Spirit 

OF  Filial  Trust  in  God 107 

George  T.  Ladd 
All  True  Love  Is  the  Love  of  God 109 

Charles  Kingsley 

A  Steady  Progress  in  the  Spiritual  Life  Is  to  Be 

Coveted  Earnestly Ill 

Edward  Caird 

Self-condemnation    Is   the   Witness  to  the  Pres- 
ence OF  the  Ideal 113 

Henry  Jones 
An  Unforgiving  Spirit  Inhibits  the  Love  of  God    .     115 

Author  of  "The  Creed  of  Christ" 
Power   and    Life   Are    the    Marks    of   a   Genuine 
Faith 118 

Francis  G.  Peabody 
The  Mystical  Life  Means  a  More  Abundant  Life     120 

Evelyn  Underhill 

The  Secret  of  Salvation  Lies  in  the  Entire  Sur- 
render OF  the  Heart  to  the  Ideal 121 

A.  L.  Sears 
Entering  into  the  Soul's  Inner  Sanctuary     .     .     .     123 

Henry  Wood 
He  Who  Loves  Christ  Cannot  but  Love  All  Men     125 

Sir  John  Seeley 
Not  Death,  but  Life,  Is  Important 128 

M.  Maeterlinck 
We  Are  Not  Merely  Caused,  but  Are  Causes    .     .     129 

Samuel  McComb 
Sometimes  Our  Prayers  Are  Not  Answered  because 
God  Is  Greater  Than  We 132 

James  Hastings 
Our  Union  with  God  Is  Unspeakably  Intimate  .     .     .     134 

Elwood  Worcester 

>i*  xvii  >i* 


^  (HontmtB  of  MshitutxanB  *i* 

TITLK  PAGE 

Action,  Not  Feeling,  Is  the  True  Test  of  Character     135 
William  James 

The  Greatness  of  Life  Is  to  Be  Measured  Only  by 

the  Indwelling  Christ 137 

Phillips  Brooks 

In  Christ  Is  Seen  the  Law  of   Love   Triumphing 

Over  the  Law  of  Sin  and  Death 140 

The  Author  of  "Pro  Christo  et  E celesta" 

"They  That  Sow  in  Tears  Shall  Reap  in  Joy"     .     .     143 
T.  Cuthbert  Hall 

War  Is  Evil,  but  Not  Wholly  Evil 145 

Gilbert  Murray 

God  Appoints  Us  the  Period  of  Time  in  Which  We 

Are  to  Live  and  Do  Our  Work 148 

Frederick  Denison  Maurice 

Courage  Is  an  Achievement  of  the  Will  Motived 

BY  Right  and  Love .     149 

Stopford  A.  Brooke 

The  Blessing  of  Grief  Is  Won  by  Trust  ....    151 
Henri-Frederic  Amiel 

Victory  Over  Death  Is  Both  a  Human  Task  and 

A  Divine  Gift 154 

Frederick  Denison  Maurice 

Not  Self-denial,  but  Self-devotion,  Is  the  Secret 
OF  the  Higher  Life 155 

Lewis  Campbell 

The  Message  of  Psychical  Research  Confirms  the 
Premonitions  of  Philosopher  and  Saint       .     .     .     158 
Arthur  Whitzel 

The  World   Is  a  Manifestation   of  God,   but  We 
Often  Falsify  What  It  Would  Say  to  Us    .     .     .     159 
Frederick  W.  Robertson 

A  Soldier  in  the  Terrors  of  Battle  May  Be  Gov- 
erned  BY  the  Highest  Motives 162 

Benjamin  Jowett 

^  xviii  'i* 


TITLE  PAGE 

A  False  and  a  True  Motive  for  Condemning  War    164 
Stanton  Coit 

A  Scientist  Makes  Confession  of  His  Belief  in  Im- 
mortality      166 

Sir  Oliver  Lodge 

A   Prophetic   Warning   of   the   Doom   Pronottnced 

AGAINST   A   False   Civilization 167 

George  Adam  Smith 

While  Resisting  Evil  We  Must  Maintain  a  Will  of 

Good  toward  the  Evil-doer 169 

J.  C.  Murray 

Selfish  and  Passionate  Thoughts  Shut  Us  Out  from 

the  Unseen  World 171 

Basil  Wilberforce 

In  the  World  Beyond  Personal  Identity  Will  Be 
Preserved,  and  Our  Hope  of  Mutual  Recognition 

Is  Justified 174 

H.  E.  Ryle 


Acknowledgments 177 


XIX 


This  book  explains  itself.  It  is  a  collection  of 
prayers  suited  to  our  modern  needs  and  especially 
to  the  spiritual  situation  created  by  the  World  War. 
To  each  prayer  is  appended  a  brief  extract  from  a 
writer  of  the  last  or  of  the  present  century,  intended 
to  serve  as  a  subject  of  meditation.  The  editor  has 
not  confined  himself  to  any  one  school  of  thought, 
but  has  boldly  appropriated  whatever  seemed  service- 
able from  all  quarters,  in  the  hope  that  what  Dean 
Stanley  used  to  call  "our  common  Christianity" 
may  commend  itself  as  at  once  a  source  of  comfort 
and  power,  and  a  bond  of  union. 

We  are  living  on  the  confines  of  a  new  world. 
Amid  the  crash  of  falling  kingdoms,  the  break-up  of 
all  we  had  hitherto  deemed  most  stable,  we  need  to 
remind  ourselves  that  the  great  realities  of  the  spiritual 
world  stand  fast,  and  that  on  these  we  can  build  an- 
other and  a  juster  civilization  than  that  which  now 
appears  to  be  doomed.  But  we  must  first  of  all  re- 
build it  it  in  our  own  souls  by  faith  and  prayer.  It 
is  as  a  help,  however  humble  and  inadequate,  to 
this  work  of  spiritual  reconstruction  that  this  book 
is  now  sent  forth.     Any  suggestion  by  way  of  in- 

*i*  xxi  *i* 


Prpfatorg  5^ntp 


creasing  its  usefulness  will  be  most  gratefully  re- 
ceived. 

In  a  few  cases  it  has  been  impossible  to  trace  the 
copyright  of  the  prayers.  It  is  hoped  that  the  own- 
ers will  accept  the  cordial  thanks  here  tendered  them 
for  their  assumed  permission. 


xxu 


Pragpra  for  ©obaij 


(§nr  iFalI|pr.  ml|n  art  tn  l^^aufn,  I|all0uip& 
hr  ®I)ij  name.  ©Iiy  ktn^tmm  rnmr.  ©l^g  mill 
bt  hont  on  ?artl|.  As  it  is  in  l^eaoen.  (Biup  ub 
tl|is  tiaij  our  bailg  brrati.  AnJi  forgioe  us  our 
trpBpassFB,  Ab  ui?  forgio?  tl|0B?  ml|o  trrspaBa 
agaiuBt  ub.  Kwh  Unh  ub  not  into  trmptation; 
lut  bpliorr  UB  from  ruil:  iii^or  iEi^xm  \b  tlye 
kingbom.  anb  tl|p  pomtr.  nnh  tl|f  glorg,  for 
po^r  anti  ton,    Am^n. 


©tie  Nemlu  ItBrouprpli  ^aginga  of  tl\t  2Iorb 

Anb  I|f  saift  unto  tlyrm,  lEurrg  ant  tljat  IjrarkPUB  to 
tlji»0p  rxiovha  Bl|aU  ururr  tastr  of  iiratl|. 

3ra«a  Haiti),  2Irt  not  I|im  uil|o  svtkB  tvnst  until  Ijr 
fin&B,  anb  inlirn  I|r  finba  l|r  alpU  br  aHtontalirb;  aaton- 
tfilirb  I|p  aliall  rrarl)  tl|p  kingbom,  anb  l|aoing  rparl|pb 
tl|p  kingdom  I|r  aljall  rrat. 

3lrHua  snithi,  f  p  aak  tol^o  arr  tI)oar  tl^at  bram  ua  to 
tl|r  kingdom,  if  tl|p  ktngbom  ia  in  I^raurn?  ©t|r  fotula 
of  tl|p  air  anb  all  tl|p  braata  tl|at  arr  nnbrr  tljr  rartl|  or 
ujjon  tljp  rartl|,  anb  fisljra  of  tl)r  ara,  tl^rap  arr  tl|rg 
«i!)irl|  bram  Xiau.  anb  U)t  kingdom  of  ijraorn  ia  UJitljin 
you,  anb  uil|orurr  al|all  knoui  l^imarlf  aljall  finb  it 
#triup  tljfrfforp,  to  knoui  jjourarlnpa,  anb  ge  alfall 

*h  xxiii  "^ 


^  JPray^ra  for  ©obag  ^i* 

ht  amarp  tl|at  gr  art  tl|r  Honn  of  titp  Almtgl|tg  iFatI|pr; 
anb  gp  £5l|all  know  tljat  gf  ar?  in  tljp  rttg  nf  Cinb,  anb 
gr  arp  tl|p  rttg. 

SIpHua  aaitli,  A  man  a!|aU  not  I|tBttatP  to  aak  ron- 
rrrntng  I|ta  plarr  in  tlir  kingdom,  fr  alkali  knom  tljat 
ntang  tijat  arc  firat  al)aU  bt  laat  anh  ti^v  laat  aljaU  b^ 
firat  anb  tli^a  al|aU  Ipnr  rtrntal  lift. 

3lrana  aaitl|,  1£uprgll|iug  ti|at  ia  not  brforr  tl|g  fa« 
anb  tljat  mljirl|  ia  I)ibbrn  from  tl|pp  aljall  br  rrurabb  to 
Hftt,  3ffor  tijprf  ia  notI)tng  I^ibbrn  mitirif  aljaU  not 
far  mabf  manifrat,  nor  burirb  mltirl}  atyall  not  br  raiarb. 

SfauH  aaiti),  lExrrjit  yr  faat  to  ii)t  worlb.  or  atyall  in 
no  miae  finb  tl)p  kingbom  of  ^ob;  anb  rxrrjit  gp  mak^ 
tl|P  aabbatli  a  rral  aabbatl|,  yr  aI|aU  not  hpp  the  3Fatl|pr. 

3(pana  aaitlj.  J  atoob  in  tl|P  mibat  of  tl)r  morlb  anb  in 
tljp  flpalj  maa  3  appn  of  iiftm,  anb  Jl  fonnb  all  mpn 
brnnkpn,  anb  non?  fonnb  3  atfjtrat  among  tljrm,  anb 
mg  aonl  griroptlj  oorr  tit?  aona  of  m^n,  brranap  ttfpg 
arp  blinb  in  titpir  tjrart  anb  Btt  not 

Spana  aaittt,  Wlirrrurr  tl^prf  arr  tmo  tlipy  are  not 
mttljont  (Bab,  anb  mtjrnrupr  tljrrp  ia  on?  alonr,  3  aay,  3 
am  mitl|  tjim.  Uaiar  tltp  atonr,  anb  tijprp  tijon  alyalt 
finb  mp-  rkaup  tl|r  moob,  anb  tlirre  am  3. 

3paua  aaitij,  A  propljpt  ia  not  arrtptabl?  in  I|ia  omn 
ronntrg,  nritlirr  botli  a  pijyairian  mork  rnr^a  npon  tlj^m 
tijat  knom  Ijim. 

ilraua  aattl|,  a  rity  built  upon  tift  tap  of  a  t|igl|  lyill 
anb  ratablialjrb,  ran  nritljrr  fall  nor  br  Ijib. 

3lrana  aaitl|,  (Hljou  lirarrat  mitlj  ant  far,  but  tljp  otl|pr 
ttfon  tjaat  rloa^b. 


Prag^rfi  for  ®0^ag 


>i* 


^  J^raypra  for  ©obay 


I.     A  PRAYER  FOR  THE  SPIRIT  OF  PRAYER 

OGOD,  who  art  the  Truth,  O  God  who  art 
Spirit,  help  us  in  spirit  and  in  truth  to  worship 
Thy  great  name,  not  acknowledging  Thee  in  one 
place  or  at  one  time  only,  but  in  every  place  and 
at  every  time,  in  all  we  do  and  all  we  see,  in  our 
work  and  in  our  rest,  in  our  laughter  and  our  tears, 
in  loneliness  and  in  fellowship,  in  the  eye  of  day  and 
in  the  shadow  of  night,  beneath  the  open  sky  as  in 
the  house  of  prayer,  in  the  heart  of  the  little  child 
as  in  the  wisdom  of  the  man,  in  the  fullness  of  health 
and  strength  and  happiness  as  in  the  valley  of  the 
shadow  of  death,  through  which,  O  Father  Almighty, 
do  Thou  in  Thy  mercy  bear  us  to  never-ending  life 
and  light  and  love.     Amen. 

Meditation:    The  inmost  meaning  of  prayer  is  harmony  with 

the  Divine  will. 

REGARDING  prayer  not  so  much  as  consisting  of 
.  particular  acts  of  devotion,  but  as  the  spirit  of  life, 
it  sterns  to  be  the  spirit  of  harmony  with  the  will  of  God. 
It  is  the  aspiration  after  all  good,  the  wish,  stronger  than 
any  earthly  passion  or  desire,  to  live  in  His  service  only. 
It  is  the  temper  of  mind  which  says  in  the  evening,  "Lord, 
into  Thy  hands  I  commend  my  spirit";  wliich  rises  up 
in  the  morning,  "To  do  Thy  will,  0  God";  and  which 
all  the  day  regards  the  actions  of  business  and  of  daily 


frayprfi  for  ©obag 


life  as  done  unto  the  Lord  and  not  to  men — "Whether  ye 
eat  or  drink,  or  whatever  ye  do,  do  all  to  the  glory  of  God." 

The  trivial  employments,  the  meanest  or  lowest  occupa- 
tions, may  receive  a  kind  of  dignity  when  thus  converted 
into  the  service  of  God.  Other  men  live  for  the  most  part 
in  dependence  on  the  opinion  of  their  fellow-men;  they 
are  the  creatures  of  their  own  interests,  they  hardly  see 
anything  clearly  in  the  mists  of  their  own  self-deceptions. 

But  he  whose  mind  is  resting  in  God  rises  above  the  petty 
aims  and  interests  of  men;  he  desires  only  to  fulfil  the 
divine  will;  he  wishes  only  to  know  the  truth.  His  eye  is 
single,  in  the  language  of  Scripture,  and  his  whole  body 
is  full  of  light.  The  light  of  truth  and  disinterestedness 
flows  into  his  soul;  the  presence  of  God,  like  the  sun  in  the 
heavens,  warms  his  heart. 

Such  a  one,  whom  I  have  imperfectly  described,  may  be 
no  mystic;  he  may  be  one  among  us  whom  we  know  not, 
undistinguished  by  any  outward  mark  from  his  fellow- 
men,  yet  carrying  within  him  a  liidden  source  of  truth  and 
strength  and  peace. 

Benjaaun  Jowett. 


>i*  ^  *i* 


JPragrra  for  u>0bay 


II.     FOR  TRANSFORMATION  OF  THE  PAST 

OLOVE  unspeakable  and  full  of  glory,  whose 
majesty  is  not  to  destroy,  but  to  save,  save 
me  from  myself. 

My  past  relentlessly  pursues  me.  Days  that  I 
thought  dead  live  over  again;  deeds  that  I  deemed 
buried  meet  me  on  the  way ;  be  Thou  my  rearward, 
O  my  God. 

Fill  up  that  which  my  life  has  left  behind,  undo 
that  which  my  life  has  done  amiss.  Repair  the 
places  I  have  wasted,  bind  the  hearts  I  have 
wounded,  dry  the  eyes  I  have  flooded.  Make  the 
evil  I  have  done  to  work  for  good,  so  that  I  myself 
would  not  know  it.  Overrule  the  acts  I  did  in 
malice;  weave  them  into  Thy  divine  mosaic,  that 
my  very  wrath  may  be  made  to  praise  Thee. 

Take  up  my  yesterdays  into  Thine  own  golden 
light,  and  transfigure  them  there,  that  I  may  learn 
with  joyful  surprise  how  even  against  my  will  I 
was  laboring  together  with  Thee;  so  shall  my  for- 
mer self  find  me  no  more.     Amen. 

Meditation:    Atonement  for  past   sins  is  every  mail's  duty. 

IF  the  past  has  already  been  to  you  one  of  wasted  oppor- 
tunities and  neglected  responsibilities,  though  that  it 
is  too  late  to  undo,  let  us  feel  that  it  is  not  too  late  to  do 
with  redoubled  energy  what  yet  remains  to  be  done. 


^  Prayers  for  ®obay  "^ 

To  shake  off  the  lethargy  of  spiritual  indifference,  to 
renounce  all  unmanly  and  ignoble  selfishness,  to  respond  to 
the  call  of  duty,  to  begin  a  life  of  earnest,  active  benef- 
icence, to  crowd  our  days  with  deeds,  and,  God  helping 
us,  in  what  remains  of  life  to  be  as  good  and  to  do  as  much 
good  as  we  can — for  this  at  least  it  is  not  too  late. 

The  harvest  indeed  is  past,  the  summer  is  over  and  gone! 
Gone  are  the  sweet  days  of  innocence,  gone  the  vernal 
time  of  youthful  ardor,  gone  the  sunny  hai*vest  hours  of 
manhood's  effort  and  activity!  But,  oh,  still  happy  you 
if,  when  the  sands  of  life  are  running  out,  in  that  supreme 
moment  when  earth  and  earthly  tilings  shall  be  passing 
forever  from  your  sight,  you  can  look  back  on  this  last 
period  of  your  earthly  probation  mth  the  blessed  con- 
sciousness that  that  at  least  has  not  been  given  in  vain. 

And  may  God  forbid  that  when  the  last  comes  to  the 
last,  as  we  lie  waiting  the  inevitable  summons,  it  should 
be  with  the  terrible  conviction  that  for  all  the  higher 
purposes  of  existence,  for  all  the  ends  for  which  God  has 
given  us  our  life,  our  life  has  been  a  failure,  a  failure  for 
which  there  is  now  no  place  of  repentance. 

John  C.\ird. 


*i<  Prayrrfl  for  ®obag  ^ 


III.     FOR   PERFECT   TRUST    IN    GOD 

OMY  God,  Thou  and  Thou  alone  art  all- wise 
and  all-knowing!  I  believe  that  Thou  knowest 
just  what  is  best  for  me.  I  believe  that  Thou 
lovest  me  better  than  I  love  myself,  that  Thou 
art  all-wise  in  Thy  providence  and  all-powerful 
in  Thy  protection. 

I  thank  Thee,  with  all  my  heart,  that  Thou  hast 
taken  me  out  of  my  own  keeping,  and  hast  bidden 
me  to  put  myself  in  Thy  hands.  I  can  ask  nothing 
better  than  this,  to  be  Thy  care,  not  my  own. 

O  my  Lord,  through  Thy  grace,  I  v/ill  follow  Thee 
whithersoever  Thou  goest,  and  will  not  lead  the 
way.  I  will  wait  on  Thee  for  Thy  guidance,  and, 
on  obtaining  it,  I  will  act  in  simplicity  and  without 
fear. 

And  I  promise  that  I  will  not  be  impatient  if 
at  any  time  I  am  kept  by  Thee  in  darkness  and  per- 
plexity; nor  will  I  complain  or  fret  if  I  come  into 
any  misfortune  or  anxiety.     Amen. 

Meditation:     The  midual  indwelling  of    God  and  the  soid 
is  the  be-all  and  (lie  end-all  of  life. 

THERE  is  but  one  thing  needful — to  possess  God. 
All  our  senses,  aU  our  powers  of  mind  and  soul, 
all  our  eternal  resources,  are  so  manj'^  ways  of  approach- 
ing the  Divinity,  so  many  modes  of  tasting  and  of  adoring 

^  5  ►I^ 


*i*  Pragfra  for  Eah<x^  ^h 

God.  We  must  learn  to  detach  ourselves  from  all  that  is 
capable  of  being  lost,  to  bind  ourselves  absolutely  only 
to  what  is  absolute  and  eternal,  and  to  enjoy  the  rest  as 
a  loan,  a  usufruct.  .  .  . 

To  adore,  to  understand,  to  receive,  to  feel,  to  give,  to 
act:  there  is  my  law,  my  duty,  my  happiness,  my  heaven. 
Let  come  what  will — even  death.  Only  be  at  peace  with 
self,  live  in  the  presence  of  God,  in  communion  with  Him, 
and  leave  the  guidance  of  existence  to  those  universal 
powers  against  whom  thou  canst  do  nothing. 

If  death  gives  me  time,  so  much  the  better.  If  its  sum- 
mons is  near,  so  much  the  better.  If  a  half-death  overtake 
me,  still  so  much  the  better,  for  so  the  path  of  success  is 
closed  to  me  only  that  I  maj-  find  opening  before  me  the 
path  of  heroism,  of  moral  greatness  and  resignation.  Every 
life  has  its  potentiality  of  greatness,  and  as  it  is  impossible 
to  be  outside  God,  the  best  is  consciously  to  dwell  in  Him. 


I  thank  Thee,  my  God,  for  the  hour  that  I  have  just 
passed  in  Thy  presence.  Thy  will  was  clear  to  me;  I 
measured  my  faults,  counted  my  griefs,  and  felt  Thy 
goodness  toward  me.  I  realized  my  own  nothingness. 
Thou  gavest  me  Thy  peace.  In  bitterness,  there  is  sweet- 
ness; in  affliction,  joy;  in  submission,  strength;  in  the 
God  Who  punishes,  the  God  Who  loves. 

To  lose  one's  life  that  one  may  gain  it;  to  offer  it  that 
one  may  receive  it;  to  possess  nothing  that  one  may  con- 
quer all;  to  renounce  self  that  God  may  give  Himself  to 
us:    how  impossible  a  problem,  and  how  subhme  a  reality! 

Henri-Frederic  Amiel. 

^  6  ^ 


JPragpra  for  (Hfl&ag 


IV.     FOR   DEVOTION   TO   GOD 

LOVING  FATHER,  grant  me  to  covet  with  a 
-^  fervent  mind  those  things  which  may  please 
Thee,  to  search  them  wisely,  to  know  them  truly, 
and  to  fulfil  them  perfectly,  to  the  praise  and 
glory  of  Thy  name.  Order  my  living  so  that  I  may 
do  that  which  is  pleasing  to  Thee,  and  give  me 
grace  that  I  may  obtain  those  things  which  are 
necessary  to  my  soul's  health. 

Dear  Lord,  make  my  way  sure  and  straight  to 
Thee,  so  that  I  fall  not  in  prosperity  or  adversity. 
In  prosperous  things  let  me  give  Thee  thanks; 
in  adverse  things  let  me  be  patient;  so  that  I  be 
not  lifted  up  with  the  one,  nor  depressed  with  the 
other.  Grant  that  I  may  rejoice  in  nothing  but  that 
which  moves  me  to  Thee.  Grant  that  I  may  be  sorry 
for  nothing  but  that  which  draws  me  from  Thee. 

Let  all  worldly  things  be  loss  unto  me  for  Thy 
sake.  Let  me  not  rejoice  with  the  joy  that  is  with- 
out Thee.  Draw  my  heart  to  penitence  and  hope, 
to  the  steadfast  purpose  of  new  obedience.  Give 
me  a  soul  intent  upon  Thy  will,  so  strong  that  no 
unworthy  affection  shall  draw  me  backward,  so 
stable  that  no  tribulation  shall  break  it.  Put 
within  me  a  diligent  spirit  to  seek  Thee.  Lead  me 
in  the  way  everlasting,  and  quicken  me  with  a 
hope  that  maketh  not  ashamed.  This  prayer  I 
make  in  Christ's  holy  name.     Amen. 


^  Pragpra  for  Sobag  ^ 

Meditation:     The  highest  joy  is  the  joy  of  serving  God. 

IN  spite  of  all  the  evil  that  has  been  spoken  of  it,  happi- 
ness is  the  stone  set  at  naught  by  the  builders,  which 
turns  out  to  be  the  headstone  of  the  corner;  only,  to  build 
safely  on  this  stone,  it  must  be  placed  on  its  broad  side — 
that  is,  we  must  consider  not  our  happiness  alone,  but  the 
happiness  of  others. 

So  God's  commandment  warns  me  that  I  should  not 
purchase  temporary  happiness  at  the  price  of  lasting  misery 
to  myself  or  others,  for  not  thus  can  I  please  God;  but  that 
I  should  act  so  as  to  increase  my  own  permanent  happiness 
and  the  happiness  of  other  men.  In  so  doing  I  am  pleasing 
God  and  obeying  His  commandments,  for  God  wishes  to 
reap  what  He  has  sown  in  me  as  much  as  in  another  man. 

Only  beware  of  thinking  that  sensual  pleasure  is  also 
God's  pleasure. 

At  the  last  it  comes  to  this:  whether  I  sacrifice  myself 
to  others,  or  others  to  myself;  whether  I  will  sacrifice 
the  short  pleasure  that  brings  remorse  and  sorrow,  to  the 
joy  of  serving  God,  which  is  followed  by  no  pain;  for  above 
all  lower  joy  there  is  tliis  higher  joy  and  peace  of  conscience 
that  soars  over  lower  pleasure  as  a  dove  soars  over  the  green 
fields.  This  joy  I  have,  and  this  joy  God  has  in  me, 
when  I  direct  my  life  so  that  in  the  broadest  sense 
and  for  the  longest  time  it  serves  to  promote  the  happiness, 
health,  and  salvation  of  my  fellow-men. 

Elwood  Worcester. 


^ 


Prayers  for  Oln&ay 


V.     A   PRAYER   FOR   HUMILITY 

Father!   I  may  come  to  Thee 
Even  with  the  beggar's  plea, 
As  the  poorest  of  Thy  poor, 
With  my  needs  and  nothing  more. 
Not  as  one  who  seeks  his  home 
With  a  step  assured  I  come. 
Yet,  O  Lord,  through  all  a  sense 
Of  Thy  tender  providence 
Stays  my  failing  heart  on  Thee 
And  confirms  the  feeble  knee. 
If  I  may  not,  sin  defiled. 
Claim  my  birthright  as  a  child, 
Suffer  it  that  I  to  Thee 
As  an  hired  servant  be. 
Let  the  lowliest  task  be  mine. 
Grateful,  so  the  work  be  Thine; 
Let  me  find  the  humblest  place 
In  the  shadow  of  Thy  grace. 
Blest  to  me  were  any  spot 
Where  temptation  whispers  not. 
If  there  be  a  weaker  one, 
Give  me  strength  to  help  him  on; 
If  a  blinder  soul  there  be. 
Let  me  guide  him  nearer  Thee. 
Make  my  mortal  dreams  come  true 
With  the  work  I  fain  would  do. 

9 


>i<  Jfraypra  for  ®nbag  ^ 

Meditation:    Only  in  sorrow  is  power  transmitted  from  one 
soul  to  another. 

WHAT  is  the  secret  of  power?  The  secret  of  power 
hes  in  the  quantity  or  the  strength  of  the  transmis- 
sion force  witliin  us.  I  transmit  influences  all  around  me 
and  I  am  at  my  best  as  an  influence  among  my  fellow- 
creatures  when  the  forces  within  me  are  transmitting  them- 
selves in  some  form  or  another  over  the  hves  and  thoughts  of 
others.  And  a  man  is  therefore  at  his  best,  as  far  as  that  is 
concerned,  when  liis  transmissible  forces  are  at  their  greatest. 

That  is  what  we  should  all  see  with  regard  to  the  various 
affairs  of  life.  When  is  the  poet  at  his  best?  When  his 
songs  have  gone  out  into  the  world,  when  he  hears  them, 
as  Dante  cUd,  sung  by  the  forge  and  by  the  women  in  the 
market-place.  He  is  at  his  best  when  his  transmissive 
force  is  spreading  widely  over  the  land.  When  is  the  states- 
man at  his  best?  When  the  laws  which  he  has  taken  care 
to  formulate  are  being  slowly  diffused  over  the  coimtry 
to  the  benefit  and  well-being  of  his  fellow-men. 

But  what  is  the  story  before  that  form  of  transmission 
takes  place?  It  is  a  story  of  sorrow.  You  find  that  men 
cannot  transmit  great  influences  and  power  over  the  world 
without  some  pang  of  agony;  that  just  as  there  is  not  a 
child  that  has  crowed  in  its  mother's  arms  that  does  not 
bear  witliin  it  the  story  of  a  pang  wdth  wliich  it  entered 
upon  the  world,  so  neither  is  there  a  single  song  stmg 
by  a  great  poet,  nor  a  single  law  framed  by  a  great  states- 
man, nor  a  single  beneficent  action  done  in  the  world,  but 
there  is  a  story  of  a  long  travail  of  soul  beforehand. 

►I^  10  ^ 


PrayprH  for  Snbag 


VI.     FOR   THE   FULFILMENT   OF   LOVE'S 
DESIRES 

FATHER  OF  LIGHTS,  from  Whom  cometh 
every  good  and  perfect  gift,  I  bless  Thee  for 
the  brave  men  and  women  who  have  gone  before 
me,  by  whose  example  I  was  reared,  and  by  whose 
lives  I  have  profited.  I  bless  Thee  for  the  com- 
mandments of  life  that  have  given  me  work  to 
do  and  power  to  do  it.  I  bless  Thee  for  the  beauty 
and  mystery  of  the  love  I  bear  toward  my  friends, 
knowing  that  in  them  is  an  exceeding  great  reward. 

Grant  that  every  unselfish  desire  of  my  heart 
may  be  fulfilled. 

If  work  and  waste,  worry  and  failure,  have  taken 
life  out  of  me,  restore  to  me  the  joy  of  resolution. 
May  friendship  with  Thee  and  with  my  fellow-men 
be  a  screen  from  bitter  winds  and  a  spring  of  pleasant 
waters.  Help  me  to  forgive  and  cancel  every  wrong 
I  have  suffered;  and  so  move  upon  the  hearts  I 
have  hurt  that  they  too  may  forgive  and  be  merciful 
unto  me  and  stand  by  me  at  all  times.     Amen. 

Meditation:    From  goodness  virtue  always  goes  forth. 

TRUE  courtesy  never  overawes  with  superiority.  It 
always  puts  others  at  their  ease.  It  brings  out  what  is 
best.  A  great  man  docs  not  make  others  feel  small.  He 
is  not  condescending.     He  is  sjTnpathctic,   appreciative, 

^  11  ^ 


^  Pragera  for  ©ohag  ^ 

encouraging.  Greatness  does  not  repel;  it  attracts.  It 
does  not  discourage;  it  inspires.  Greatness  and  goodness 
are  sympathetic,  self -imparting.  They  were  united  in 
Jesus.  He  was  the  best  great  man  and  the  greatest  good 
man  in  the  world.  His  perfection  was  a  rebuke,  indeed. 
But  it  was  love  going  out  in  sympathy  and  inspiration  to 
transform  men  into  His  own  Ukeness. 

When  a  disciple  saw  Jesus  employing  power  in  the  ser- 
vice of  kindness,  he  exclaimed,  "Depart  from  me,  for  I 
am  a  sinful  man,"  but  at  the  same  moment  clung  to  His 
feet  and  would  not  let  Him  go.  Sympathy  attracts  while 
it  rebukes.  The  deeper  its  loving  rebuke,  the  mightier  its 
attracting  and  transforming  power. 

A  sinless,  perfect  man,  sympathizing  with  sinful,  imper- 
fect men,  not  refusing  obloquy,  suffering,  and  death,  in 
His  consuming  desire  to  bring  them  to  themselves,  could 
not  pass  through  the  world  and  leave  it  unchanged.  Great 
moral  personalities,  with  imperfections,  have  revolutionized 
multitudes.  They  have  inspired  faith,  and  men  who  have 
faith  in  somebody  are  better  men. 

The  sacrifice  of  Jesus  is  thought  to  be  the  power  of  re- 
generation. The  sacrifice  is  regarded  as  something  different 
from  the  character,  the  holiness,  the  example  of  Jesus, 
something  which  He  offered  to  God. "  His  sacrifice  was 
indeed  offered  to  God  and  was  acceptable  to  Him.  But 
it  was  an  expression  of  His  character,  not  anything  other 
and  different.  It  was  the  giving  of  Himself,  nothing  less 
than  Himself,  His  whole  and  very  self,  for  men. 

George  Harris. 


12 


Prag^ra  for  Snhag 


VII.     FOR   THE   JOY   OF   BROTHERHOOD 

I  AM  weary  of  my  island  life,  O  Spirit;  it  is  ab- 
sence from  Thee.  I  am  weary  of  the  pleasures 
spent  upon  myself,  weary  of  that  dividing  sea 
which  makes  me  alone. 

I  look  out  upon  the  monotonous  waves  that 
roll  between  me  and  my  brother,  and  I  begin  to 
be  in  want;  I  long  for  the  time  when  there  shall 
be  no  more  sea. 

Lift  m.e  on  to  the  mainland.  Thou  Spirit  of  hu- 
manity, unite  my  heart  to  the  brotherhood  of  human 
souls.  Set  my  feet  "  in  a  large  room  " — in  a  space 
where  many  congregate.  Place  me  on  the  continent 
of  human  sympathy  where  I  can  find  my  brother 
by  night  and  by  day — where  storms  divide  not, 
where  waves  intervene  not,  where  depths  of  down- 
ward distance  drown  not  love. 

Then  shall  the  food  of  the  far  country  be  swine 
husks;  then  shall  the  riot  and  the  revel  be  eclipsed 
by  a  new  joy — the  music  and  dancing  of  the  city 
of  God.     Amen. 

Meditation:    Justice  is  the  harmony  of  all  virtues. 

THE  application  of  personal  justice  to  daily  life  de- 
mands vigorous  moral  training  and  ceaseless  vigilance. 
A  watchful  eye  is  necessary  always  in  order  that  one  may 
do  no  injustice  among  his  fellow-men. 

^  13  -^ 


^  J^rag^ra  for  Snbag  ^i* 

To  the  clear  sense  of  justice  the  least  things  as  well  as 
the  greatest  need  to  be  brought.  Justice  is  a  daily  obli- 
gation in  many  little  things.  The  habit  of  justice,  acquired 
by  much  self-discipline,  and  perhaps  through  many  fail- 
ures, will  become  a  fine  spiritual  tact  for  right  judgment 
and  right  doing;  the  quality  of  justice,  tempered  with 
mercy,  is  a  sweet  reasonableness  of  character,  which  is 
one  of  the  most  delightful  domestic  virtues,  as  well  as  a 
most  serviceable  quality  of  friendship  and  good  citizen- 
ship. 

A  profitable  study  of  justice  may  be  found  in  the  ex- 
ample of  the  Son  of  Man  in  the  minor  instances  of  His 
instantaneous  rightness  toward  every  man  and  woman 
whom  He  met.  He  was  just  to  each  and  all  with  the  im- 
mediate tact  of  true  love.  Such  reasonableness  and  equity 
in  all  speech  and  act  is  the  wisdom  of  love. 

Common  sins  of  our  daily  conversation  disclose  often 
some  lack  of  this  reasonable  virtue  of  justness.  Unchari- 
tableness  is,  in  its  principle  of  e\'il,  lovelessness  of  speech; 
but  its  want  of  love  betrays  also  a  frequent  lack  of  a  just 
sense  of  life.  .  .  .  Love  is  always  something  more  than 
justice;  but  where  a  fine  sense  of  what  is  just  is  wanting, 
love  itself  may  easily  be  betrayed  into  uncharitable  judg- 
ment. 

Newman  Smyth. 


14 


Irag^ra  fnr  ®o^ai| 


VIII.     FOR   KNOWLEDGE 

FATHER  OF  LIGHTS,  by  whose  hand  the 
fires  of  the  sun  are  fed,  and  who  hast  kindled 
in  our  hearts  the  desire  to  know,  we  bless  Thee  for 
leading  us  into  a  life  wherein  light  and  darkness 
are  so  wonderfully  mingled.  For  the  darkness  and 
for  the  light  we  praise  Thee.  On  our  knees  we 
would  learn  to  think.  Standing  on  our  feet  we 
would  learn  to  pray. 

O  Thou  in  whose  being  the  simplicity  and  mys- 
tery of  life  do  meet  together,  cleanse  our  prayers 
with  the  sanctity  of  reason,  ennoble  our  reason- 
ings with  the  majesty  of  prayer,  and  so  bring  us 
onward  through  darkness  and  through  light,  till 
in  Thy  presence  and  before  our  eyes  the  power 
that  made  the  stars  and  the  love  that  exalts  our 
hearts  shall  kiss  each  other,  through  Jesus  Christ, 
our  Lord.     Amen. 

Meditation:  Genuine  science  has  no  quarrel  xoith  genuine  piety. 

NOTHING  is  more  striking  nor  more  touching  than 
the  kind  of  piety  with  which  science  inspires  all 
great  men  of  learning:  Kepler,  Descartes,  Pascal,  Newton, 
Pasteur.  .  .  .  Wliy  are  all  of  them  plunged  in  solemn  con- 
templation? What  mysterious  power  bows  them  before 
the  ultimate  and  changes  their  ardent  and  victorious 
research  into  adoration? 

>i*  15  *i* 


prayers  fnr  ©obaij 


From  a  conquered  truth,  as  from  an  accomplished  duty 
or  sacrifice,  some  mysterious  perfume  exhales  which  makes 
fragrant  the  whole  soul  life  and  gives  it  over  to  humility 
and  joy. 

In  our  days  much  has  been  said  of  the  religion  of  science; 
it  has  even  been  claimed  that  this  religion  would  do  away 
with  all  others  and  reign  in  their  place.  This  is  not  true 
— first,  because  science  is  no  more  the  whole  of  life  than 
thought  is  the  whole  soul,  and  again,  because  those  who 
speak  thus  of  science  speak  in  the  most  unreUgious  way 
possible. 

None  the  less  is  it  true  that  the  object  of  science  is 
eminently  religious,  and  that  the  pursuit  of  science  is  an 
integral  part  of  religion.  The  religion  of  science  is  no 
more  safe  from  superstition  and  fanaticism  than  any  other 
religion,  and  easily  turns  to  idolatry.  But  even  in  idolatry 
religion  forces  itself  into  recognition. 

The  true  religion  of  science  is  not  that  which  defies 
ephemeral  results  or  material  power,  but  that  which  holds 
research  itself  to  be  holy,  the  steady  ascent  of  the  spirit 
toward  the  larger  light. 

While  learned  men  who  fail  to  recognize  the  religious 
character  of  science  narrow  and  restrict  the  bounds  of 
their  horizon,  religious  men  who  fear  science  and  will 
have  none  of  it  no  less  strike  a  mortal  blow  at  their  own 
faith. 

Why  should  we  permit  ourselves  to  be  shut  up  to  the 
alternative  of  choosing  between  an  irrehgious  science  and 
an  ignorant  or  unintelligent  religion? 

AUGUSTE   SaBATIER. 

^  16  ^ 


>h  Pragfra  fnr  QlflJiaji 


IX.     FOR  FAITH 

OGOD,  too  near  to  be  found,  too  simple  to  be 
conceived,  too  good  to  be  believed,  help  us  to 
trust,  not  in  our  knowledge  of  Thee,  but  in  Thy 
knowledge  of  us;  to  be  certain  of  Thee,  not  be- 
cause we  feel  our  thoughts  of  Thee  are  true,  but 
because  we  know  how  far  Thou  dost  transcend 
them. 

May  we  not  be  anxious  to  discern  Thy  will,  but 
content  only  with  desire  to  do  it;  may  we  not 
strain  our  minds  to  understand  Thy  nature,  but 
yield  ourselves  and  live  our  lives  only  to  express 
Thee. 

Show  us  how  foolish  it  is  to  doubt  Thee,  since 
Thou  Thyself  dost  set  the  questions  which  dis- 
turb us;  reveal  our  unbelief  to  be  faith  fretting  at 
its  outworn  form. 

Be  gracious  when  we  are  tempted  to  cease  from 
moral  strife;  reveal  what  it  is  that  struggles  in  us. 
Before  we  tire  of  mental  search  enable  us  to  see 
that  it  was  not  ourselves,  but  Thy  call,  which 
stirred  our  souls. 

Turn  us  back  from  our  voyages  of  thought  to 
that  which  sent  us  forth.  Teach  us  to  trust  not  to 
cleverness  or  learning,  but  to  that  inward  faith 
which  can  never  be  denied.  Lead  us  out  of  con- 
fusion to  simplicity.  Call  us  back  from  wandering 
without  to  find  Thee  at  home  within.     Amen. 

^  17  ^ 


Prayfra  fnr  Olobay 


Meditation:  Faith  is  to  religion  what  experiment  is  to  science. 

OUR  unbidden  thoughts  of  good,  our  noblest  impulses, 
the  quick-shooting  pangs  of  penitence,  the  tears  that 
startle  us  in  moments  of  self-reflection,  the  aspirations  that 
rise  unconquered  from  every  defeat — whence  come  these 
high  and  moving  experiences?  Not  certainly  from  ourselves, 
but  from  the  direct  and  immediate  touch  of  God  upon  us. 

Nor  has  pyschology  anything  to  say  against  this  in- 
tuition; for  whatever  God  does  in  our  mental  life  must 
be  in  accordance  with  the  forms  and  in  obedience  to  the 
laws  of  this  life.  Otherwise,  we  could  be  no  more  con- 
scious of  His  influence  than  we  are  of  His  energizing  in 
some  remote  corner  of  the  physical  universe. 

We  may  indeed  explain  away  these  inner  voices  as 
delusion,  or  interpret  them  as  the  product  of  our  natural 
surroundings  and  therefore  bereft  of  all  right  to  command 
the  will — in  which  case  we  need  not  be  surprised  if  they 
fail  of  their  spiritual  ministry  and  leave  us  duller  and  more 
insensitive  than  before.  Their  reaUty  can  be  tested  by 
their  ethical  fruits.   .  .   . 

We  are  free  to  believe  or  disbeheve.  Without  the  vent- 
ure of  faith  we  cannot  enjoy  the  characteristic  fruits  of 
faith,  for  faith  is  the  indispensable  hiunan  condition  to 
the  divine  work  of  regeneration. 

Faith  is  to  religion  what  experiment  is  to  science.  We 
can  know  the  transforming,  miracle-working  might  of  the 
Spirit  through  sympathy,  through  co-operation  in  word 
and  act  and  character  with  His  gracious  promptings  and 
suggestions.  Samuel  IMcComb. 

^  18  ^ 


^  PragprH  for  ©o^a^r 


X.     FOR  GROWTH  IN  FAITH  AND  VIRTUE 

OTHOU  unseen  source  of  peace  and  holiness, 
may  we  come  to  Thy  secret  place  and  be 
filled  with  Thy  solemn  light.  As  we  come  to  Thee 
how  can  we  but  remember  when  we  have  been 
drawn  aside  from  the  straight  and  narrow  way, 
when  we  have  not  walked  lovingly  with  each  other 
and  humbly  with  Thee,  when  we  have  feared  what 
is  not  terrible,  and  wished  for  what  is  not  holy 
in  Thy  sight. 

In  our  weakness  be  Thou  the  quickening  power 
of  life.  Arise  within  our  hearts  as  healing  strength 
and  joy.  Make  us  obedient  to  Thy  pure  and 
righteous  thought.  Inspire  us  with  the  divine 
faith,  subdue  us  to  the  lowly  practice  of  those  who 
have  lived  as  fellow-workers  with  Thee. 

Day  by  day  may  we  grow  in  faith,  in  self-denial 
and  charity,  in  the  purity  of  heart  by  which  we 
may  see  Thee,  and  the  larger  life  of  love  to  which 
Thou  callest  us.     Amen. 

Meditation:      Let  no  untoward  experience  weaken  the  su- 
premacy of  the  soul. 

LIFT  up  your  hearts,  and  flinch  not  when  these  things 
■^   come  upon  you: 

When  events  go  contrary  to  your  wishes  and  j'ou  are 
vexed  and  faint. 

^  19  4^ 


^  Pra^fra  for  ©oJJag  *h 

When  3^our  work  seems  mean  and  your  calling  obscm"e. 

When  you  remember  the  time  you  have  wasted,  the 
teaching  you  did  not  embrace,  the  bitter  word  you  uttered, 
and  the  prayer  for  help  that  you  tiu-ned  from. 

When  the  mind  feels  too  weary  to  think  and  the  soul 
too  sad  to  love. 

When  the  world  creeps  and  crawls  upon  you,  and  its 
foolish  greatness  and  gilded  idleness  seduce  you. 

When  Pleasure  smiles  and  bids  you  come,  and  Duty 
cries  and  bids  you  stay. 

When  you  know  the  depths  of  beauty  you  lost  by  going 
after  false  gods,  and  the  light  you  have  missed  by  the 
worship  of  dark  words. 

When  the  fancies  of  youth  seem  folly  and  the  dreams 
of  other  days  are  gone. 

When  the  old  order  changeth  and  the  new  is  not  desired. 

When  those  you  love  are  not  where  they  used  to  be, 
vs^hen  the  silver  cord  is  loosed  and  the  pitcher  broken  at 
the  fountain. 

Then  let  your  soul  shine  out  and  the  spirit  become 
supreme. 

H.   YOUIDEN. 


^  20  ^ 


jpragFra  for  (Hoiiag 


XI.  FOR  FREEDOM  FROM  EVIL  THOUGHTS 

SPIRIT  of  holiness  and  grace,  turn  not  away, 
as  I  would  bring  to  Thee  the  sin  and  disorder 
of  a  soul  beset  by  evil  imagining  and  base  desire. 

I  have  done  despite  to  the  dignity  of  Thine 
image  upon  me.  I  have  wasted  my  spiritual  treas- 
ure; I  have  not  revered  myself  nor  the  majesty  of 
Thy  gifts.  How  can  I  cleanse  my  heart  or  waken  to 
the  shame  of  the  earthly  mind  unless  Thou  shine  into 
my  soul,  unless  Thou  surprise  me  with  Thy  splendors 
before  which  every  vileness  must  shrink  away? 

Be  present  with  Thy  power  to  unite  my  heart  to 
love  Thy  name,  to  bring  into  captivity  every 
thought  that  I  may  always  commune  with  what 
is  high  and  holy  in  Thy  sight  and  rejoice  only  in 
the  fair  and  fragrant  things  of  virtue  and  of  honor. 

Kindle  Thou  within  me  a  flame  of  pure  aspiring, 
to  consume  every  grosser  passion,  that  from  my 
life,  henceforth,  as  from  a  lamp  of  Thine,  a  light 
may  shine  upon  the  ways  of  men.     Amen. 

Meditation:    Thoughts  of  evil  are  not  necessarily  evil  thoughts. 

DESIRES  cannot  but  be  experienced  by  human  beings, 
the  realization  of  which  would  be  incompatible 
with  obedience  to  the  divine  will.  These  must  be  fled 
from,  or  stifled,  or  controlled,  if  we  would  remain  sinless 
jn  spite  of  their  appearance  in  the  field  of  our  consciousness. 

^  21  * 


The  thought  of  evil  is  not  necessarily  an  evil  thought; 
the  impulse  that  is  dominant  at  a  particular  moment  is 
not  necessarily  that  which  is  most  deeply  rooted  in  the 
self,  and  may  even  be  quite  incongruous  with  those  that 
express  the  habitual  desires  of  the  personality.  Feelings, 
emotions,  impulses,  and  desires  of  various  kinds  can  no 
more  be  prevented  from  arising,  at  least  when  first  they 
obtrude  themselves  upon  us,  than  can  the  organic  craving 
for  meat  and  diink  when  those  things  have  long  been 
withheld. 

But  all  these  modes  of  consciousness,  when  they  are  pres- 
ent, may  be  prevented  by  the  will  from  influencing  its 
action.  For  the  will  can  direct  the  mind's  attention  toward 
or  away  from  particular  objects.  It  can  summon  up  rival 
impulses  to  those  wliich  at  the  moment  may  be  most 
vividly  present.  It  can  thus  strengthen  weaker,  and  weaken 
stronger,  ' '  motives. ' ' 

The  involuntary  idea  of  an  end  in  itself  pleasant  to 
contemplate,  but  the  pursuit  of  which  would  involve  sin, 
is  not  polluting,  not  e\'il  or  an  evidence  of  e^^l  character 
in  the  subject  whose  mind  it  "enters,"  until  the  will  causes 
it  to  be  retained,  dwelt  upon,  and  cherished,  for  the  sake 
of  lawless  enjoj-ment. 

Nothing  "from  without"  the  inmost  seat  of  the  per- 
sonahty — the  moral  intention  of  the  will — ^"  pollutes  the 
man";  only  that  wliich  comes  from  within,  bearing  the 
will's  impress  and  so  e\'incing  the  real  desire  and  aim  of 
the  man,  his  "personal"  attitude  toward  the  good  and 
toward  God. 

F.  R.  Tennant. 

►I<  22  ►!< 


^  PragprH  for  ®o5a0  ►I^ 

XII.      FOR    DIVINE     STRENGTH     IN     LIFE 
AND    IN    DEATH 

OLORD,  support  us  all  the  day  long  of  this 
troublous  life,  until  the  shadows  lengthen  and 
the  evening  comes,  and  the  busy  world  is  hushed, 
and  the  fever  of  life  is  over,  and  our  work  is  done. 
Then  of  Thy  great  mercy  grant  us  a  safe  lodging, 
and  a  holy  rest,  and  peace  at  the  last;  through 
Jesus  Christ  our  Lord.     Amen. 

Meditation:     The  present  life  should  be  lived  in  the  light 
of  the  life  to  come. 

IT  is  on  our  own  responsibility,  that  we  are,  as  we  say, 
taken  up  with  by  the  present.  We  can  break  away,  if 
we  will,  it  may  be  with  trouble  and  sacrifice,  from  the  en- 
chanted bonds. 

We  speak  of  a  life  occupied  exclusively  bj''  work  which 
leaves  no  room  for  other  things.  But  our  words  make  life 
a  much  simpler  thing  than  it  is.  The  same  man  may 
lead,  naturally  and  rightly  lead,  not  one,  but  several 
distinct  lives.  He  may  lead  one  life  in  his  profession  and 
business.  He  leads  another  Ufe  in  his  family  and  among 
his  friends.  He  may  lead  another,  quite  as  absorbing, 
(luite  as  characteristic,  in  the  pursuit  of  some  favorite 
line  of  literature  or  science  or  art;  and  he  has  time  and 
interest,  and  serious  thought  for  all,  without  sacrificing, 
even  without  subordinating  one  to  the  other. 

►I^  23  ^ 


^  l^ragpra  for  ©o&ag  "^ 

The  most  occupied  and  eager  life  has  its  reserved  mo- 
ments, its  pauses  and  retirements,  when  the  man  is,  and 
feels  himself,  alone.  They  may  be  for  many  uses.  They 
may  be  for  dreams,  for  ambitions,  for  regrets.  They 
may  be  for  his  secret  sins,  his  hatreds,  his  impurities,  his 
pride.  But  they  may  be,  too,  for  the  discipline  and  fore- 
thought of  another  and  greater  life. 

The  thing  is  that  the  busiest  life,  the  life  which  makes 
the  most  of  opportunities  and  conditions  of  the  present 
time,  and  aims  the  highest  at  its  object,  is  not  incom- 
patible, unless  we  choose,  with  the  most  resolute  prepara- 
tion for  another  life  to  come. 

"The  world  is  not  nothing,  because  it  is  transient." 
And  the  faitliful  servant  is  he  who  uses  to  the  utmost 
whatever  talent  has  been  assigned  to  him  in  the  mani- 
fold sj^stem  of  visible  things,  uses  it  with  his  whole  heart 
and  strength  and  enthusiasm;  uses  it  as  if  it  were  all  he  had 
to  do;  and  yet  is  ever  conscious  that  all  that  he  is  passing 
through  here  is  but  the  antechamber  of  what  is  to  be  his 
real  life,  and  that  to  be  fitted  for  all  that  he  may  meet  there, 
and  its  tasks,  all  that  will  make  demands  on  Ms  character 
and  will  and  affections,  is  the  real  reason  why  he  is  here. 

R.  W.  Church. 


>h  24 


JPra^pra  for  (Eahw 


XIII.     FOR    A    HEROIC    TEMPER 

GRANT,  O  Lord,  as  Thou  hast  cast  my  lot  in 
a  fair  ground,  that  I  may  show  forth  con- 
tentment by  rejoicing  in  the  privileges  with  which 
Thou  hast  strewn  my  path,  and  by  using  to  the 
full  my  opportunities  for  service. 

In  hours  of  hardship,  preserve  me  from  self- 
pity  and  endow  me  with  the  warrior's  mind,  that 
even  in  the  heat  of  battle  I  may  be  inspired  with  the 
sense  of  vocation  and  win  the  peace  of  the  victor; 
through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord.     Amen. 

Meditation:    Of  the  loonderful  power  of  our  loishes. 

GO  where  we  will,  the  ))lcntiful  river  of  life  flows  on, 
beneath  the  canopj"  of  heaven. 

It  flows  between  prison  walls,  where  the  sun  never 
gleams  on  its  waters,  as  it  flows  by  the  palace  steps,  where 
all  is  gladness  and  glory.  Not  our  concern  the  depth  of 
this  river,  or  its  width,  or  the  strength  of  its  current,  as 
it  streams  on  forever,  pertaining  to  all;  but  of  deepest 
importance  to  us  is  the  size  and  the  purity  of  the  cup  that 
we  plunge  into  its  waters. 

For  whatever  of  life  we  absorb  must  needs  take  the 
form  of  this  cup,  as  this,  too,  has  taken  the  form  of  our 
thoughts  and  our  feelings,  being  modeled,  indeed,  on  the 
breast  of  our  intimate  destiny  as  the  breast  of  a  goddess 
once  served  for  the  cup  of  a  sculptor  of  old. 

^  25  ^ 


Pragprfi  for  ®oba^ 


Every  man  has  the  cup  he  has  learned  to  desire.  When 
we  murmur  at  Fate,  let  our  grievance  be  only  that  she 
grafted  not  in  our  heart  the  wish  for,  or  thought  of,  a  cup 
more  ample  and  perfect.  For,  indeed,  in  the  wish  alone 
does  inequahty  he;  but  this  inequahty  vanishes  the  moment 
it  has  been  perceived. 

Does  the  thought  that  our  wish  might  be  nobler  not  at 
once  bring  nobility  with  it;  does  not  the  breast  of  our 
destiny  throb  to  this  new  aspiration,  thereby  expanding 
the  docile  cup  of  the  ideal — the  cup  whose  metal  is  phable 
stiU  to  the  cold,  stern  hours  of  death? 

No  cause  for  complaint  has  he  who  has  learned  that  his 
feehngs  are  lacking  in  generous  ardor,  or  the  other  who 
nurses  witliin  liim  a  hope  for  a  httle  more  happiness,  a 
httle  more  beauty,  a  httle  more  justice.  For  here  all 
things  come  to  pass  in  the  way  that  they  tell  us  it  happens 
with  the  felicity  of  the  elect,  of  whom  each  one  is  robed 
in  gladness  and  wears  the  garment  befitting  his  stature. 
Nor  can  he  desire  a  happiness  more  perfect  than  the  hap- 
piness which  he  possesses,  without  the  desire  wheremth 
he  desired  at  once  bringing  fulfilment  with  it. 

If  I  envy  with  noble  envy  the  happiness  of  those  who 
are  able  to  plunge  a  heavier  cup,  and  more  radiant  than 
mine,  there  where  the  great  river  is  brightened,  I  have, 
though  I  know  it  not,  my  excellent  share  of  all  that  they 
draw  from  the  river,  and  my  lips  repose  by  the  side  of 
their  lips  on  the  rim  of  the  shining  cup. 

M.  Maeterlinck. 


26 


Pragprs  fnr  (JotiaQ 


XIV.      FOR    GRACE    TO    COMMUNE    WITH 
THINGS   ETERNAL 

LORD,  Who  endest  not,  and  bringest  all  things 
J  to  an  end;  Who  changest  not,  and  from  Thee 
change  passeth  upon  all  things;  Who  sleepest  not, 
and  givest  sleep  to  all  creatures  of  Thy  hand: 

Grant  to  us,  we  beseech  Thee,  that  our  good 
things  may  pass  from  us  easily  till  we  find  them  in 
Thee  joyfully. 

That  our  evil  things  may  pass  from  us  quickly 
and  our  offenses  be  covered  by  Thy  charity. 

That  in  the  world  which  was  before  us,  and  shall 
be  after  us,  we  may  see  evil  divided  against  itself  and 
hasting  to  destruction,  and  good  changing  into  better, 
that  it  may  go  forth  conquering  and  to  conquer. 

Grant  to  us,  so  to  refresh  ourselves,  among  lights 
that  set  and  flowers  that  fade,  that  we  may  grow 
to  desire  the  pleasures  laid  up  at  Thy  right  hand 
for  evermore,  and  the  perpetual  shining  of  the  Sun 
of  Righteousness. 

Grant  to  all  whom  Thou  hast  created,  if  haply 
they  may  feel  after  Thee,  and  find  Thee,  such  a 
pilgrimage  through  the  wilderness  of  this  world, 
that  they  may  come,  by  how  many  ways  soever, 
into  the  King's  highway  at  last,  and  enter  thereby 
into  the  one  city  that  hath  foundations  and  dwell 
therein  forever. 

And  so  bring  us  all  of  Thy  mercy  in  patience  and 

^  27  ^ 


*i*  JpraQpra  for  Qlobag  ^ 

hope  to   the  sleep   of  death   and   the   morning   of 
resurrection. 

And  this  we  desire  in  the  name  which  is  above 
every  name,  in  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ.     Amen. 

Meditation:     Blessedness  comes  not  by  escape  from  trouble, 
but  by  victory  over  trouble. 

BLESSEDNESS  is  .  .  .  not  separable  from  suffering; 
and  among  the  things  which  are  added  to  one  who 
seeks  God's  Kingdom  is  the  bearing  of  one's  own  cross. 

Such  is  the  paradox  of  the  Christian  character.  It  is 
to  be  blessed,  but  it  is  not  to  be  sheltered.  It  hears  the 
word,  "My  peace  I  give  unto  you,"  but  it  hears  also  that 
other  word,  "Not  as  the  world  giveth";  it  is  the  saving  of 
the  soul,  but  the  saving  is  through  losing;  it  is  the  house 
built  upon  a  rock,  yet  the  porter  of  that  house  must  watch. 

The  teaching  of  Jesus  evades  neither  the  problem  of 
pleasure  nor  that  of  pain.  The  Christian  character  takes 
account  of  both.  It  leads  to  blessedness,  but  it  anticipates 
hardness.  Its  end  is  reached  not  by  escape  from  trouble, 
but  by  victory  over  trouble. 

The  peacemakers  are  to  be  blessed;  but  the  peace- 
makers are  not  so  much  those  who  avoid  war  as  those  who 
contend  for  equity.  They  are  not  seekers  of  peace;  they 
are  makers  of  peace.  What  they  are  seeking  is  the  King- 
dom of  God  and  His  righteousness;  and  the  blessedness 
of  peacemaking  is  thus  added  to  them.  The  outcome  of 
righteousness  is  blessedness;  but  the  process  of  righteous- 
ness is  sacrifice.  Francis  G.  Peabody. 

^  28  ►I^ 


Prag^ra  for  iHahn^ 


XV.      FOR    STRENGTH    AND    LIGHT 

WE  have  not  loved  others  in  all  classes  of 
society,  as  Thou,  O  Lord,  hast  loved  us. 
We  have  not  thanked  Thee  sufficiently  for  the 
treasures  of  knowledge,  and  for  the  opportunities 
of  doing  good,  which  Thou  hast  given  us  in  this 
latter  day. 

We  have  worried  ourselves  too  much  about  the 
religious  gossip  of  the  age,  and  have  not  considered 
enough  the  fixed  forms  of  truth.  We  have  been 
indolent,  and  have  made  many  excuses  for  falling 
short  in  Thy  work. 

And  now,  O  Lord,  in  these  difficult  times,  when 
there  is  a  seeming  opposition  of  knowledge  and 
faith,  and  an  accumulation  of  facts  beyond  the 
power  of  the  human  mind  to  conceive;  and  good 
men  of  all  religions,  more  and  more,  meet  in  Thee; 
and  the  strife  between  classes  in  society,  and  be- 
tween good  and  evil  in  our  own  souls,  is  not  less 
than  of  old;  and  the  love  of  pleasure  and  the 
desires  of  the  flesh  are  always  coming  in  between 
us  and  Thee;  and  we  cannot  rise  above  these 
things  to  see  the  light  of  Heaven,  but  are  tossed 
upon  a  sea  of  troubles — we  pray  Thee  be  our 
guide  and  strength  and  light,  that,  looking  up  to 
Thee  always,  we  may  behold  the  rock  on  which 
we  stand,  and  be  confident  in  the  word  which 
Thou  hast  spoken.      Amen. 

^  29  ►I^ 


*i*  JPragrra  far  (Hobag  ^ 

Meditation:    Renunciation  is  each  man^s  own  secret. 

RENUNCIATION,  once  for  all,  in  \'iew  of  the  eternal. 
It  seems  a  good  doctrine,  after  aU.     Only  let  us  not 
misunderstand  it. 

It  offers  no  commission  to  idleness,  to  apathy,  to  in- 
difference. It  means  anji^hing  but  an  empty  world  or 
an  empty  soul.  On  the  contrary,  it  gives  us  a  full-blooded 
vigor  because  it  gives  a  fuU-blooded  hope.  It  is  a  doctrine 
of  values,  of  what  are  the  higher  and  what  the  lower. 

The  man  who  embraces  it  must  beware  of  one  thing. 
He  must  not  seek  to  impose  his  renunciation  upon  other 
people.  The  beauty  of  it  is  that  it  is  each  man's  own 
secret.  You  cannot  make  your  growth  that  of  3'om'  neigh- 
bor. You  cannot  impose  it  on  your  neighbor.  Try  it, 
and  you  will  assuredly  fail.  Your  only  success  wiU  be  in 
becoming  a  nuisance. 

It  is,  we  say,  each  man's  own  secret,  the  secret  won  out 
of  his  experience,  his  traffic  with  life,  with  time,  with 
eternity.  But,  oh!  it  is  a  great  secret.  It  is  the  secret  of 
accepting  the  imiverse,  with  all  its  infinity,  its  depth  of 
meaning;  the  universe  with  its  apparatus  of  sense  in 
front  and  with  its  spiritual  behind;  with  its  fleeting  mo- 
ment and  its  timeless  underneath;  the  secret  which,  when 
the  world  seems  most  vacant,  makes  it  for  us  most  filled 
with  God;  which  opens  to  us  the  meaning  of  the  apostohc 
word  of  "having  nothing,  and  j^et  possessing  aU  things." 

Jonathan  Brierley. 


30 


Pragprs  for  ©nliag 


XVI.      FOR    SECURITY    IN    GOD 

OGOD,  save  me  from  the  world  I  comprehend 
not,  the  world  of  fatality  and  fearful  shadows. 
Lead  me  into  Thy  luminous  realm,  where  all  is 
clear  through  trust  in  Thee.  Let  not  my  living 
soul  fall  into  the  grasp  of  necessities  insensible  and 
dead. 

What  though  I  be  afflicted,  if  I  know  that  Thou 
knowest  it — that  Thou  art  its  beginning  and  its 
end!  What  though  I  walk  in  the  dark,  if  Thou 
art  there!  Give  me  inward  calm,  and  if  not  joy, 
then  such  surrender  as  befits  a  son. 

When  the  whirlwind  passes,  hide  me  underneath 
Thy  wing  and  make  my  weakness  strong  by  Thy 
presence.  If  I  am  lost,  find  me;  if  I  fall,  stay 
Thou  near  by.     Amen. 

Meditation:    We  viust  interpret  the  universe  by  what  we  find 
in  the  human  sold. 

IT  is  not  the  universe  as  seen  by  man's  bodily  eye  that  is 
divine,  but  the  universe  seen  as  it  really  is,  seen  as 
God  sees  it,  seen,  in  the  unity  and  totality  of  its  all-per- 
vading life,  by  the  all-seeing  eye  of  the  all-sustaining  Soul. 
It  is  not  until  wc  can  see  the  universe  as  it  really  is  that 
we  are  free  to  identify  it  ^vith  God.  But  if  wc  are  to  see 
the  universe  as  it  really  is,  we  must  look  within.  The 
highest  and  best  thing  that  man  knows  of  is  his  own  ideal 

^  31  "h 


Jrayprfl  for  ®ol»ay 


self.  Primarily,  then,  and  also  finally,  man  must  seek  for 
God  in  lais  own  soul.  If  and  so  far  as  he  can  find  God  there 
he  will  find  Him  elsewhere;  and  the  nearer  he  grows,  by 
the  expansion  and  evolution  of  his  own  inner  life,  to  the 
God  within,  the  wider  is  the  world  that  he  sees  to  be  illu- 
minated by  God's  presence. 

When  the  unattainable  goal  has  been  reached,  when 
man  has  become  what  he  really  is,  has  found  liis  true  self, 
then  and  not  till  then  is  he  free  to  say,  "I  am  one  with  the 
All-Father,  and  therefore  at  last  I  am  I";  and  then,  and 
not  till  then,  is  he  able  to  realize  that  the  universe,  the 
All  of  Being,  is  divine. 

For  if  God  the  Father  is  the  true  life  of  nature,  God  the 
indwelling  Spirit  is  the  true  self  of  man;  and  as  the  Father 
and  the  indwelUng  Spirit  are  one  God,  so  are  the  true  life 
of  nature  and  the  true  self  of  man  one  life  and  one  self. 

Anon. 


32 


Pragerfi  tor  ein&ay 


XVII.     FOR   A   LIFE    IN    TUNE   WITH    THE 
INFINITE 

O  UNSEEN  POWER  that  rules  and  controls 
the  destinies  of  the  children  of  earth,  teach 
me  the  symphony  of  life  so  that  my  nature  may  be 
in  tune  with  thine.  Reveal  to  me  the  joy  of  being 
loving,  self-sacrificing,  and  charitable. 

Teach  me  to  know  and  play  life's  game  with 
courage,  fortitude,  and  confidence.  Endow  me 
with  wisdom  to  guard  my  tongue  and  temper, 
and  learn  with  patience  the  art  of  ruling  my 
own  life  for  its  highest  good,  with  due  regard 
for  the  privacy,  rights,  and  limitations  of  other 
lives. 

Help  me  to  strive  for  the  highest  legitimate  re- 
ward of  merit,  ambition,  and  opportunity  in  my 
activities,  ever  ready  to  extend  a  kindly  helping 
hand  to  those  who  need  encouragement  and  succor 
in  the  struggle. 

Enable  me  to  give  a  smile  instead  of  a  frown,  a 
cheerful,  kindly  word  instead  of  harshness  and  bit- 
terness. Make  me  sympathetic  in  sorrow,  realizing 
that  there  are  hidden  woes  in  every  life,  however 
exalted  or  lowly. 

If  in  life's  battle  I  am  wounded  or  tottering, 
pour  into  my  wounds  the  balm  of  hope  and  imbue 
me  with  courage  undaunted  to  arise  and  continue 
the  strife.     Amen. 

^  33  "h 


Prayfra  for  (Unliag 


Meditation:     All  things  are  possible  to  the  man  who  loves 
goodness. 

THE  new  man  is  an  optimist.  Neither  men  nor 
demons  daunt  him.  He  is  conscious  that  all  the 
higher  forces  of  the  universe  are  ranged  on  his  side;  all 
things  are  working  together  for  his  good;  new  accessions 
of  strength  and  seK-confidence  fill  him  with  boundless 
hope  for  himself  and  for  others. 

The  vices  and  foUies  which  he  laments  receive  a  new 
interpretation;  they  are  transformed  into  a  ladder  whereby 
he  chmbs  to  unexpected  heights  of  goodness;  the  moral 
blunders  of  the  past  become  stepping-stones  to  higher 
things.  Even  the  consciousness  that  the  power  of  evil 
still  Im'ks  within,  which  is  probably  the  worst  enemy  of 
the  new  life,  is  eventually  overcome. 

The  man  breathes  a  new  and  stimulating  air;  he  is 
lifted  above  his  ordinary'  and  empirical  self.  Evil  has  lost 
its  prestige.  Under  the  old  order  of  tilings  he  thought 
that  he  had  to  go  on  sinning  and  repenting;  now  he  is 
possessed  with  such  a  love  of  righteousness  that  as  he 
looks  back  over  the  years  he  wonders  how  it  was  ever 
possible  for  him  to  have  fallen  under  the  power  of  such 
cheap  and  tawdry  seductions.  .  .  . 

His  optimism  is  all-embracing.  He  despaks  of  no  man, 
however  sinful,  however  lost  to  all  that  is  good.  For  in 
his  o-^vTi  case  life  had  to  be  built  up  afresh  from  the  verj' 
foundations.  And  what  this  spiritual  reconstruction  has 
done  for  him  it  can  do  for  everybod}\ 

Samuel  McComb. 

•^  34  ^ 


Jpraycra  for  ao^ag 


XVIII.      FOR     AN     OBEDIENT     AND     UN- 
SELFISH    SPIRIT 

FATHER,  I  thank  Thee  for  work  and  for  the 
opportunity  to  work.  I  rejoice  that  in  work- 
ing I  reflect  some  broken  gleam  of  Thy  glory. 
Thou  fillest  the  past  and  the  present  in  all  worlds 
with  Thy  tireless  energy,  yet  is  there  no  fret  or 
haste  in  all  Thy  doing. 

Grant  that  I  also  may  do  my  appointed  tasks 
with  a  sense  of  ease  and  mastery,  always  conscious 
that  I  am  greater  than  they,  and  ever  ready  for 
still  nobler  efforts. 

Save  me  from  sullen  discontent,  from  fruitless 
war  with  the  circumstances  of  my  lot.  Make  my 
heart  obedient  that  by  the  untoward  things  of  ex- 
perience I  may  win  a  larger  and  freer  life.  Uphold 
me  with  the  faith  that  Thou  hast  called  me  into 
fellowship  with  Thy  perfect  Son  who,  when  He 
dwelt  among  us,  went  about  doing  good. 

In  this  faith  be  it  mine  to  cheer  the  mourner, 
raise  up  the  fallen,  relieve  the  needy,  forgive  the 
wrong-doer,  and  praise  the  lover  of  simplicity  and 
goodness.  While  I  give  to  others,  give  Thou  to  me, 
that  I  may  grow  more  and  more  in  the  spirit  of 
helpfulness  and  generosity,  both  in  word  and  deed. 
Amen. 


3o 


Prayprs  for  ©obag 


Meditation:     The  unattainable  ideal  is  also  a  part  of  man. 

MAN'S  experience  is  not  limited,  in  the  moral  life,  to 
the  "is"  of  his  actual  achievement,  or,  in  the  contem- 
plation and  production  of  the  beautiful,  to  the  beauty 
which  the  artist  has  succeeded  in  embodying  in  his  poem, 
his  painting,  or  his  symphony.  And,  as  in  the  quest  of 
beauty,  so  in  the  life  of  moral  endeavor.  The  best  and 
noblest  looks  up  to  a  better  and  nobler.  With  strange 
mingling  of  ardor  and  despair  he  strains  his  eyes  toward 
an  unapproachable  perfection.  Hence  Browning's  familiar 
paradox  that  life's  success  lies  in  its  failures,  and  that  the 
divine  verdict,  in  contrast  to  the  world's,  is  passed,  not 
upon  the  paltry  sum  of  a  man's  deeds  and  attainments,  but 
upon  the  visions  of  goodness  which  were  his  own  despair: 

What  I  aspired  to  be 
And  was  not,  comforts  me. 

Such  a  passage  requires,  of  course,  to  be  read  with  under- 
standing. The  question  is  not  of  the  casual  inoperative 
wish,  or  the  formal  acknowledgment  of  the  more  excellent 
way,  on  the  part  of  those  confirmed  in  self-indulgence. 

Obviously,  where  there  is  no  attempt,  there  can  be  no 
failure.  It  is  the  vision  of  goodness  which  has  pierced  a 
man  with  a  sense  of  his  own  un worthiness,  the  ideal  after 
which  he  has  painfully  limped — it  is  of  these  things  that 
the  poet  speaks. 

A.  Seth  Pringle-Pattison. 


>^  36 


Jprag^rH  for  ©otiag 


XIX.     MORNING    PRAYER    FOR    BLESSING 
ON   THE   WORK   OF   THE   DAY 

OGOD,  we  thank  Thee  for  the  sweet  refresh- 
ment of  sleep  and  for  the  glory  and  vigor  of 
the  new  day.  As  we  set  our  faces  once  more  toward 
our  daily  work,  we  pray  Thee  for  the  strength  suffi- 
cient for  our  tasks.  May  Christ's  spirit  of  duty  and 
service  ennoble  all  we  do.  Uphold  us  by  the  con- 
sciousness that  our  work  is  useful  work  and  a 
blessing  to  all. 

If  there  has  been  anything  in  our  work  harmful 
to  others  and  dishonorable  to  ourselves,  reveal  it 
to  our  inner  eye  with  such  clearness  that  we  shall 
hate  it  and  put  it  away,  though  it  be  at  a  loss  to 
ourselves.  When  we  work  with  others,  help  us  to 
regard  them,  not  as  servants  to  our  will,  but  as 
brothers  equal  to  us  in  human  dignity  and  equally 
worthy  of  their  full  reward. 

May  there  be  nothing  in  this  day's  work  of  which 
we  shall  be  ashamed  when  the  sun  has  set,  nor  in 
the  eventide  of  our  life  when  our  task  is  done  and 
we  go  to  our  long  home  to  meet  Thy  face.     Amen. 

Meditation:   Our  work  should  be  the  expression  of  our  best  self. 

IT  is  possible  to  be  idly  busy,  or  at  least  to  be  busy  to 
small  purpose.  The  great  temptation,  probably  of  all 
executives,  for  example,  is  to  allow  the  day  to  be  filled 
with  many  small  details,  and  not  to  hold  themselves  to 

^  37  ^ 


jPrag^rH  far  ©o&ag 


any  solid  large  piece  of  work — to  the  work  that  shall  call 
out  their  best  and  largest — to  the  work  that  is  really  laid 
upon  them  to  do. 

"In  the  reverence  for  work,  divinely  commissioned,  one 
must  not  hesitate  to  refuse  the  'devastator  of  a  day.'" 

Indeed,  executives  peculiarly  need  Hilty's  advice:  "  Limit 
yourself  to  that  which  you  reaUy  know  and  which  has  been 
specially  committed  to  your  care.  One  must  not  permit 
himseK  to  be  overburdened  with  superfluous  tasks." 

Plainly,  only  through  work  that  is  some  real  expression 
of  our  largest  self  can  there  come  to  us  in  full  measure 
either  character  or  happiness  or  influence.  Carlyle  seems 
to  have  all  three  in  mind,  and  the  law  of  expression  upon 
which  they  so  largely  depend,  when  he  urges  so  impatiently: 
' '  Produce !  Produce !  Were  it  but  the  pitif ulest  infinitesimal 
fraction  of  a  product,  produce  it  in  God's  name!  'Tis 
utmost  thou  hast  in  thee:  out  with  it,  then.     Up!     Up!" 

No  mere  "truth-hunting,"  no  speculation,  no  high  emo- 
tions, no  dreams,  no  raptiu-es,  no  thrills,  no  beatific  vision, 
no  transcendental  revelation  of  the  divine,  no  tasting  God, 
being  drunk  with  God,  absorption  in  God  (as  the  old 
mystics  variously  put  it)  will  avail  anything,  if  they  do 
not  mean  better  character,  shown  in  more  active  service. 

H.  C.  King. 


*h  38 


PrayrrH  for  ®o&atr 


XX.     FOR   A   RIGHT   PLACE    IN   LIFE 

GIVE  me,  O  God,  my  true  place  and  work  on 
earth.  Listen  not  to  my  vain  wish  that  leans 
so  quickly  to  presumption,  but  give  according  to 
Thine  own  wise  thought  and  love. 

Choose  not  too  large  a  place,  lest  I  be  brought 
to  shame  before  Thee.  Give  not  too  small  a  place, 
lest  I  fail  in  that  full  measure  of  service  which  is 
due.  Choose  Thou!  and  fit  me  to  work  which 
Thou  shalt  choose.  Help  me  to  have  large  ambi- 
tions of  fidelity  and  a  mind  at  peace  in  faith. 

May  I  enjoy  my  work,  knowing  that  strength 
and  wisdom  are  of  Thee  and  that  Thou  rejoicest 
in  Thy  child's  joy.  And  may  my  life,  spent  in  the 
way  of  Thine  appointment,  fit  me  for  that  place 
which  Christ  my  Lord  has  gone  to  prepare.     Amen. 

Meditation:    "Every  man's  life  is  a  plan  of  God." 

WE  must  start  with  the  presumption  that  there  is  an 
intention,  a  purpose  of  God,  in  each  of  oiu-  lives. 
To  presume  this  is  only  to  accept  in  concrete  form  the 
saying  of  the  philosophers  that  "God  thinks  in  terms  of 
life." 

Doctor  Bushnell  entitled  one  of  his  most  positive  and 
searching  sermons,.  "Every  Man's  Life  a  Plan  of  God" — 
a  thought  which  he  expanded  to  the  proposition  "that 
God  has  a  definite  life-plan  for  every  human  person,  gird- 

^  39  ►I^ 


^  Pra^^rB  for  (Eahnyi  ^i* 

ing  him,  visibly  or  invisibly,  for  some  exact  thing  which 
it  will  be  the  true  significance  and  glory  of  his  life  to  have 
accomplished." 

How  do  we  know,  you  ask,  that  such  is  the  fact,  if  it 
be  a  fact?  And  if  we  do  not  know  the  fact,  and  just  what 
it  means,  of  what  use  is  it  to  us?  Let  us  start,  I  answer, 
with  the  presumption  that  there  is  an  intention  or  purpose 
of  God  in  the  lives  of  men,  and  see  if  that  presumption 
does  not  fit  the  best  interpretation  we  can  give  to  human 
life. 

The  fact  that  a  man  cannot  see  the  purpose  of  God  in 
his  life  is  no  proof  that  jt  does  not  exist.  We  can  see 
abundant  reason  why  it  should  not  appear.  We  should 
become  at  once  and  continuously  involved  in  the  tyranny 
of  detail.  We  should  lose  out  of  our  lives  the  joy  of  dis- 
covery.   We  should  cease  to  be  free  workers. 

Not  so  does  God  enter  into  partnership  with  us.  His 
sovereignty  is  adjusted  to  the  fact  that  we  are  made  in 
His  image.  Herein  is  the  guarantee  of  our  freedom,  but 
herein  also  is  the  assurance  that  we  have  not  been  made 
in  vain. 

W.  J.  Tucker. 


40 


^  Jprag^rs  for  (Eo6ag  ^ 

XXI.      AN    EVENING    PRAYER    FOR    SELF- 
KNOWLEDGE 

CLEAR  in  Thy  sight,  soul-searching  God,  we 
now  place  ourselves  at  the  close  of  another 
day,  that  we  may  render  our  account  of  it  to  Thee; 
nay,  rather  that  we  may  learn  to  see  its  hours  as 
they  lie  before  Thee,  Who  knoweth  us  better  than 
we  know  ourselves. 

We  do  but  come  to  Thee  at  a  few  set  times, 
going  forth  on  the  wings  of  the  morning  to  meet 
Thy  blessing,  and  returning  to  Thy  shelter  within 
the  shades  of  night.  But  Thou  abidest  ever  with  us, 
as  a  silence  behind  the  voices  of  the  world,  the  truth 
within  its  illusions,  and  the  shame  secreted  in  its  sins. 

O  that  Thou  wouldst  purify  our  vision,  that  we 
may  know  even  as  we  are  known!  O  that  Thou 
wouldst  increase  our  faith,  that  we  may  no  longei 
lean  on  our  broken  will,  but  throw  ourselves  freely 
open  unto  Thee,  and  simply  watch  Thy  guiding 
light,  and  follow  where  Thou  mayst  lead!     Amen. 

Meditntion:     In  self-examination  seek  to  get  a  clear  visio7i 
of  yourself. 

WHEN  you  are  examining  yourself,  never  call  yourself 
merely  a  "sinner";  that  is  very  cheap  abuse,  and 
utterly  useless.  You  may  even  get  to  like  it  and  be  proud 
of  it.     But  call  yourself  a  liar,  a  coward,  a  sluggard,  a 

^  41  ►!< 


*i*  Jprajj^rH  for  ©oltag  *i* 

glutton,  or  an  evil-eyed,  jealous  wretch,  if  you  indeed  find 
yourself  to  be  in  any  wise  any  of  these. 

Take  steady  means  to  check  yourself  in  whatever  fault 
you  have  ascertained  and  justly  accused  yourself  of.  And 
as  soon  as  you  are  in  active  way  of  mending,  you  will  be 
no  more  inclined  to  moan  over  an  undefined  corruption. 

For  the  rest,  you  will  find  it  less  easy  to  uproot  faults 
than  to  choke  them  by  gaining  virtues.  Do  not  think  of 
your  faults;  still  less  of  others'  faults.  In  every  person 
who  comes  near  you,  look  for  what  is  good  and  strong; 
honor  that;  rejoice  in  it;  and,  as  you  can,  try  to  imitate 
it,  and  your  faults  will  drop  off,  Uke  dead  leaves  when  their 
time  comes. 

If,  on  looking  back,  your  whole  life  should  seem  rugged 
as  a  palm-tree  stem,  still,  never  mind,  so  long  as  it  has 
been  growing,  and  has  its  grand  green  shade  of  leaves, 
and  weight  of  honeyed  fruit,  at  top.  And  even  if  you  can- 
not find  much  good  in  yourself  at  last,  think  that  it  does 
not  much  matter  to  the  universe,  either,  what  you  were, 
or  are;  think  how  many  people  are  noble,  if  you  cannot 
be,  and  rejoice  in  their  nobleness. 

John  Ruskin. 


►J.  42 


^  Pragpra  for  ®o6ag  ^ 


XXII.      FOR    FREEDOM    AND    HOPE 

OTHOU  Source  of  holiness,  health  and  beauty, 
open  my  eyes  to  the  glory  and  the  wonder 
of  a  life  touched  with  mystic  experience  and  filled 
with  spiritual  opportunity.  Renouncing  all  faith- 
less fears  and  vain  regrets,  may  I  live  in  the  glad 
freedom  of  Thy  children  and  do  the  work  of  the 
day  in  cheerfulness  and  hope.  Whatever  may  be 
in  store  for  me  this  day,  whether  it  be  joy  or  sad- 
ness, happiness  or  grief,  grant  me  to  learn  the 
secret  of  Thy  peace  and  to  do  Thy  will.     Amen. 

Meditation:    The  morality  of  acquisition  ynud  be  swpplanted 
by  the  morality  of  sacrifice. 

WE  and  our  children  must  convert  ourselves  to  a 
different  conception  of  life.  In  place  of  the  ad- 
vantages of  regular  conduct,  we  must  show  them  the 
dangers  to  be  braved  if  they  wish  to  be  just;  we  must  ac- 
custom them  to  the  morality  of  the  splendid  risk  in  which 
they  are  taught  that  the  just  have  much  to  suffer;  we  must 
make  them  understand  the  word  of  Christ  which  promises 
persecution  to  those  who  have  left  all  to  follow  Ilim. 

It  is  a  heroic  morality,  the  only  one  which  is  accountable 
for  great  upheavals,  and  the  only  one  which  liberates 
hearts,  the  only  one  which  leads  us  through  tlie  valley 
of  the  shadow  of  death,  where  the  outward  man  perishes, 
to  a  glorious  end.    We  are  all  pledged  to  the  most  humili- 

^  43  ^ 


^  Prayprs  fnr  ©ntian  ^ 

ating  servitudes,  all  reduced  to  trembling  for  that  which 
we  are,  which  we  have  and  possess,  all  slaves  of  fear  and 
emptiness,  until  the  day  when  we  accomplish  the  substi- 
tution of  the  morality  of  acquisition,  of  possession,  and  of 
conservation,  by  that  of  active  sacrifice  whoUy  sanctioned 
by  love.  There  we  are  rich  in  all  that  we  have  given, 
and  possess,  nothing  more  really  than  that  which  we  have 
willingly  lost. 

May  all  that  which  we  have,  and  all  that  wliich  we  are, 
be  transformed  into  love,  as  oil,  in  consuming  itself,  is 
transformed  into  light.  Thus  shall  we  enter  upon  the 
movement  of  liberation  which  brings  forth  life  from  death. 
And  we  shall  be  brothers  and  joint  inheritors  of  Christ 
and  of  aU  the  victorious  vanquished  who  have  healed  us 
by  their  suffering,  created  light  for  us  by  their  darkness, 
and  by  their  crushing  out  have  left  bread  for  souls  as  the 
grain  of  wheat  ground  in  the  mill. 

Man  is  a  knight.  AU  the  gifts  of  life  are  conferred  upon 
him  that  he  may  use  them  upon  earth.  Here  is  the  helmet ; 
here  are  the  breastplate  and  the  sword;  here  are  the  gen- 
erous heart  and  the  strong  arm. 

If  he  makes  the  intended  use  of  it  and  hurls  himself  into 
battle  without  looking  backward,  then  the  helmet  can  roll 
to  earth,  the  breastplate  be  shattered  into  a  thousand 
pieces,  the  broken  sword  faU  from  his  hands. 

Do  not  lament;  regret  nothing;  the  goal  is  attained. 
The  combatant  can  fall  in  peace,  in  saying  with  St.  Paul, 
"I  have  fought  a  good  fight,  I  have  finished  my  course, 
I  have  kept  the  faith. 

Charles  Wagner. 

^1^  44  ^ 


na  for  (Uobau 


XXIIL     A  MORNING  PRAYER  FOR  BELIEF 
IN  THE  BEAUTY  AND  WORK  OF  LIFE 

THOU  who  art  the  fountain  of  life  and  light, 
whose  coming  forth  to  us  is  in  the  morning  I 
would  not  have  Thee  come  to  find  me  sleeping,  but 
be  of  those  with  whom  is  the  timely  inner  wakeful- 
ness. Thou  who  turnest  the  shadow  of  death  into 
the  morning,  make  it  morning  in  my  heart — the 
morning  of  readiness  to  be  divinely  visited  by  what- 
ever arrives,  the  morning  of  that  inward  having, 
the  having  of  pure  desire  and  pure  intent,  of  faith 
and  hope  and  charity,  to  which  much  is  given  that 
could  not  else  be  received. 

Make  me  glad  to  be  with  the  gladness  that  is 
strength,  saying  to  myself  that  life  is  beautiful 
for  all  its  glooms,  and  great  for  all  its  pettiness; 
that  this  which  is  new  is  good,  yet  is  there  better 
than  this,  and  that  this  house  of  mine,  large  or 
narrow,  handsome  or  mean,  is  the  house  of  the  Lord, 
wherein  I  may  find  Him  who  hides  to  be  found. 

Grant  me  to  eat  to  my  nourishing  at  Thy  table 
spread  in  the  wilderness,  and  to  be  feeding  others 
the  while  with  strengthening  food  by  the  life  which 
I  live  in  their  midst,  ministering  ever  the  silent, 
subtle  ministry  of  gracious  ways  and  fine  behavior. 
Amen. 


Hh  45 


^  Prag^ra  for  OloJiag  "^ 

Meditation:    Every  man  can  become  a  hero  after  the  pattern 
of  Christ. 

WHAT  is  more  striking  in  the  life  of  Jesus  than  its 
perfect  calm?  It  is  this  which  carries  with  it  so 
impressibly  the  suggestion  of  strength.  When  we  think 
of  the  feelings  vithin  his  breast,  how  tumultuous  at  times 
they  must  have  been,  the  indignation  at  wrong-doing,  the 
impatience  with  narrowness,  the  shock  to  his  patriotism, 
the  pain  at  his  countrymen's  ingratitude,  the  bitterness 
of  failure,  the  wounding  of  his  tenderest  sensibilities,  the 
disappointments  over  the  weakness  and  slow  comprehen- 
sion of  his  disciples,  and  finally  the  physical  suffering — 
how  wonderful  is  the  even,  unbroken  calmness  of  his  life! 

Through  it  all  perfect  self-possession,  a  heart  and  mind 
at  peace,  no  trace  of  discord  in  the  inner  hfe,  no  bewilder- 
ment or  wonder  at  the  strangeness  of  his  lot,  no  complaint, 
no  impatience — just  a  calm,  self-collected,  God-centered 
strength.  We  shall  always  have  to  go  back  to  the  life  of 
Jesus,  not  to  find  a  model  to  copy,  but  an  ideal  of  Christian 
character,  which  shows  us  what  man  may  become. 

It  is  this  God-centered  strength  that  forms  the  chief 
element  of  Christian  character.  You  may  call  it  by  many 
different  names — the  liberty  of  the  Christian,  independence, 
the  dominion  over  the  world,  or  simply  faith — it  is  that 
quality  which  has  translated  itseK  into  our  modern  vocabu- 
lary in  the  use  of  the  word  character, 

L.  H.  Schwab. 


^  46  ^ 


PragprB  for  ®oJ»ag 


XXIV.     A  MORNING  PRAYER  FOR  PURITY 
AND   LOVE 

GRANT,  Almighty  God,  that  we  may  this  day 
endeavor  to  be  that  which  Thou  wouldst  have 
us  to  be,  and  to  do  that  which  Thou  commandest, 
listening  to  the  voice  of  Thy  Spirit  within  us,  not 
leaving  one  fault  unrepented  of,  one  spot  in  our 
hearts  uncleansed,  and  sparing  least  of  all  that  sin 
with  which  it  costeth  us  most  to  part;  not  looking 
back,  but  forward,  not  casting  down  our  eyes  to 
earth,  but  lifting  them  up  to  heaven,  not  leaning 
upon  mortal  man,  but  upon  Thee,  the  Rock  of 
Ages,  who  standeth  fast  forever,  loving  all  men, 
doing  good  unto  all  men,  loving  Thee,  and  never 
doubting  that  Thou  lovest  us,  and  wilt  make  all 
things  work  together  for  good  to  those  who  trust 
in  Thee,  our  Lord,  our  Father,  and  our  God.     Amen. 

Meditation:    God  is  the  only  true  motive  of  conduct. 

IT  makes  a  great  difference  whether  we  live  a  righteous 
life  out  of  a  sense  of  this  world  or  out  of  a  sense  of 
the  eternal  world,  because  the  laws  require  it  or  because 
God  requires  it — that  is,  whether  wc  act  from  the  greater 
or  the  lesser  motive. 

It  is  the  motive  that  gives  tone  and  force  to  character. 
Conduct  is  secondary;  motive  is  first.  God  is  the  only 
true  motive  for  hiunan  conduct.     The  sublimest  lines  in 

^'  47  ^ 


^  Praypra  for  Q^ahn^  ^ 

English  poetry  perhaps  are  those  translated  by  Doctor 
Johnson  from  Boethius: 

From  Thee,  great  God,  we  spring;    to  Thee  we  tend; 
Path,  Motive,  Guide,  Original,  and  End. 

God,  the  way,  the  motive,  the  guide,  the  beginning  and 
end  of  all  conduct — this  is  what  is  meant.  Do  you  ask 
why  it  is  necessary  to  take  God  into  account,  why  it  is 
not  the  same  if  w'e  do  right  from  any  motive  whatever?  I 
answer  it  is  all-important  to  get  into  the  order  and  relation 
where  we  belong,  the  eternal  and  abiding  order  of  God 
where  right  is  right,  because  it  is  God's  nature  and  because 
it  is  the  secret  and  method  of  the  universe.  Thus  right- 
eousness becomes  supremely  imperative;  there  is  the  whole 
universe  behind  it  as  a  motive;  it  lays  hold  of  our  inmost 
nature  and  binds  us  to  duty  by  every  law  of  our  being. 

It  is  one  thing  to  live  in  right  relations  to  our  neighbors 
because  society  and  custom  require  it;  it  is  another  thing, 
not  contrary,  but  greater,  to  do  right  because  we  thus 
put  ourselves  in  accord  with  God  and  His  eternal  laws. 
By  acting  from  such  a  motive  we  rise  into  the  heights  of 
our  being  and  vindicate  our  nature  as  having  its  origin  in 
God. 

T.  T.  Hunger. 


48  ^ 


>i^  Praypra  for  ©oJiay  *i* 

XXV.     AN  EVENING  PRAYER  OF  THANKS- 
GIVING 

Dear  God,  another  day  is  done, 

And  I  have  seen  the  golden  sun 

Swing  in  the  arch  from  east  to  west 

And  sink  behind  the  pines  to  rest. 

I  thank  Thee  that  Thou  gavest  me 

The  power  of  sight,  that  I  may  see 

The  tinted  glories  of  Thy  skies. 

An  earthly  glimpse  of  Paradise: 

The  power  to  hear  the  evening  breeze 

Swelling  in  organ  harmonies: 

The  power  to  feel  the  tender  grasp 

Of  loving  hands  in  friendship's  clasp: 

I  thank  Thee  for  these  gifts  to  me. 

But  one  thing  more  I  ask  of  Thee: 

From  out  Thy  bounteous,  gracious  hand 

Give  me  the  power  to  understand. 

To  understand — to  sympathize — 

To  note  the  pain  in  others'  eyes; 

To  have  the  power  to  rightly  read 

The  kindly  motive  of  each  deed. 

And  this  I  humbly  ask  of  Thee 

Because  I  know  Thou  lovest  me.     Amen. 


49 


praypra  for  SoJiag 


Meditation:     True  life  consists  alone  in  love. 

ONLY  he  who  loves  lives. 
Love  is,  according  to  Christ's  teaching,  life  itself, 
not  irrational,  suffering,  perishable,  but  blessed  and  infinite 
life.    And  we  all  know  it. 

Love  is  not  a  deduction  of  reason,  not  the  consequence 
of  a  certain  activity;  it  is  the  most  joyous  activity  of  life, 
which  surrounds  us  on  all  sides,  and  which  we  all  know  in 
ourselves  from  the  very  first  recollections  of  childhood 
until  the  false  teachings  of  the  world  have  muddled  it  in 
our  soul  and  have  deprived  us  of  the  possibility  of  experi- 
encing it.  Love  is  not  a  bias  for  what  increases  the  temporal 
good  of  man's  personality,  as  the  love  for  chosen  persons 
or  objects,  but  that  stirring  after  the  good  of  what  is  out- 
side of  man,  which  remains  in  man  after  the  renunciation 
of  the  good  of  the  animal  personality. 

Who  of  living  men  does  not  know  that  blessed  feeling 
which  is  experienced  at  least  once,  most  frequently  only 
in  earliest  childhood,  when  the  soul  is  not  yet  muddled 
by  that  lie  wliich  drowns  life  in  us — that  blessed  feeling 
of  meekness  of  spirit  when  one  wants  to  love  all— rela- 
tives, father,  mother,  brothers,  and  evil  men,  and  en- 
emies, and  the  dog,  and  the  horse,  and  the  grass;  one 
wishes  only  this  much — that  all  should  be  happy  and 
comfortable — and  one  wishes  still  more  that  one  may  be 
the  cause  of  the  happiness  of  all  and  may  give  one's  whole 
life  for  the  purpose  of  making  all  happy  and  comfortable 
forever.  This  alone  is  that  love  in  which  man's  life  con- 
sists. Leo  Tolstoi. 

^  50  ^ 


^  Jpragfra  for  Sobay  ^ 

XXVI.    FOR  THE  JOY  OF  RECONCILIATION, 
LIBERTY,   AND   SYMPATHY 

OGOD,  Father  of  all  men,  graciously  give  unto 
me  the  joy  of  perfect  reconciliation  with  Thy 
will.  May  every  disorderly  power  in  my  soul  be 
subdued  to  willing  obedience.  Create  in  me  the 
music  of  harmonious  fellowships,  so  that  all  my 
powers  may  be  as  a  united  orchestra  to  praise  and 
bless  Thy  holy  name.  And  mercifully  give  unto 
me  the  joy  of  spiritual  liberty. 

Let  Thy  statutes  become  my  songs.  Take  the 
reluctance  out  of  my  obedience.  Let  me  not  be  in 
Thy  house  in  the  spirit  of  a  bond -slave,  but  rather 
in  the  spirit  of  a  son,  finding  springs  of  comfort 
in  Thy  presence  and  esteeming  Thy  desire  as  my 
delight. 

O  God,  give  unto  me  the  holy  joy  of  human 
sympathy. 

Recreate  the  chords  that  have  become  insensitive 
to  my  brother's  joys  and  griefs.  If  the  harp  is 
broken,  graciously  remake  it  out  of  the  fullness  of 
Thy  love.     Amen. 

Meditation:    Christ  does  not  trust  Himself  to  a  divided  heart. 

THE  more  clearly  wc  follow  Christ  the  more  persever- 
ingly  do  certain  truths  j)resent  themselves  to  us — truths 
with  which  we  commune,  but  dare  not,  for  a  while,  receive 

^  51  ^ 


'i*  Prag^ra  for  (Sahn^  'i* 

in  their  full  import,  because  we  know  they  would  lead  us 
whither  we  would  not.  Yet  they  come  again  and  again, 
offering  themselves  to  us,  like  the  sibyl  of  old,  each  time 
under  harder  conditions,  till  at  last  we  accept  them  on 
their  own  terms. 

A  Christian  may  love  his  Master  truly,  and  be  yet  un- 
prepared to  follow  Him  whithersoever  He  goeth.  How 
can  two  walk  in  a  way  unless  they  be  agreed?  And  the 
enmity  between  Christ  and  nature  is  not  yet  so  wholly  slain 
but  that  ther§  may  be  on  the  Christian's  part  conscious 
shrinkings  and  reservations;  he  knows  that  it  would  be 
hard  to  take  this  thing  up;  hard,  perhaps  impossible,  to 
let  this  tiling  go,  even  at  the  command  of  Christ  Himself. 

This  crisis  of  spiritual  life,  full  of  pain  and  perplexity, 
is  one  with  which  our  Saviour  may  deeply  sympatliize, 
for  He  knoweth  what  is  in  man;  yet  it  is  none  the  less  a 
temper  which  "is  not  worthy  of  Him." 

He  does  not  trust  Himself  to  a  divided  heart,  and  of  this 
the  owner  of  such  a  heart  is  well  aware.  So  that  there 
arises  within  it  a  secret  cra\'ing  for  whatever  may  detach 
and  loosen  these  bonds,  from  which  no  effort  of  its  own 
can  free  it — a  desire  Uke  that  which  St.  Paul  so  fervently 
expresses  for  the  fellowship  of  his  Lord's  sufferings,  the 
conformity  to  his  Lord's  death,  so  that  by  any  means  it 
may  attain  to  spiritual  resurrection  with  Him. 

There  comes  a  moment  in  which  the  soul,  awaking  to 
the  sense  of  the  deep  antagonism  between  grace  and  nature, 
will  exclaim,  as  seeing  no  other  way  of  deliverance,  "Let 
us  go  unto  Him,  that  we  may  also  die  with  Him." 

Author  of  "Patience  of  Hope." 

►I^  52  4^ 


IrayprH  for  ©obag 


XXVII.     FOR    SPIRITUAL   STRENGTH 

THIS  is  my  prayer  to  Thee,  my  Lord — strike, 
strike  at  the  root  of  penury  in  my  heart. 

Give  me  the  strength  lightly  to  bear  my  joys  and 
sorrows. 

Give  me  the  strength  to  make  my  love  fruitful 
in  service. 

Give  me  the  strength  never  to  disown  the  poor, 
or  bend  my  knees  before  insolent  might. 

Give  me  the  strength  to  raise  my  mind  high  above 
daily  trifles. 

And  give  me  the  strength  to  surrender  my  strength 
to  Thy  will  with  love.     Amen. 

Meditation:    Our  duties,  not  our  rights,  have  the  first  place. 

THERE  is  a  morbid  feeling,  very  frequently  met  with, 
which  disguises  from  itself  that  it  is  selfishness,  by 
trj^ing  to  lay  claim  to  extra  sensitiveness  and  demanding 
special  consideration  from  all  who  come  in  contact  with  it. 
This  is  one  of  the  commonest  forms  of  discontent  and 
unhappiness;  it  is  one  of  the  most  ordinary  complaints 
of  the  moral  invalid  that  he  is  misunderstood,  that  he  is 
not  appreciated  as  he  ought  to  be,  that  he  does  not  receive 
the  affection  he  requires;  you  know  the  long  string  of 
excuses  that  we  all  of  us  are  tempted  to  give  when  we  do 
not  wish  to  be  judged  by  the  rules  which  we  apply  to  all 
others. 

^  53  ^ 


>i<  j^rayfrH  for  cHoliai}  ^ 

We  must  be  content  to  be  misunderstood  in  the  sense 
that  we  all  know  our  own  virtues  better  than  any  one  else, 
that  we  often  speak  unadvisedly  and  carelessly  with  our 
tongue,  and  have  not  the  strength  to  take  the  consequences. 
It  may  be  we  are  not  appreciated,  or  loved  as  we  would 
wish  or  as  we  think  we  ought  to  be,  but  if  we  were  to  become 
of  more  value  we  should  certainly  be  more  appreciated, 
and  if  we  were  more  amiable  we  should  be  more  loved. 

In  moral  questions,  as  in  political  questions,  the  whole 
issue  turns  on  whether  we  commence  from  our  rights  or 
our  duties:  to  take  up  an  easy  attitude  toward  life  and 
demand  that  every  one  should  do  his  duty  toward  us,  while 
we  gracefully  waive  the  question  of  how  far  we  are  doing 
our  duty  toward  him,  is  one  of  the  most  ordinary  forms  of 
selfishness  nourished  by  a  distorted  sense  of  justice. 

Let  us  begin  from  ourselves  in  the  first  instance,  and  the 
result  will  be  quite  different;  let  us  consider  whether  we 
do  all  we  can  for  others,  and  let  us  not  try  to  wring  out 
of  them  the  uttermost  farthing;  nay,  let  us  keep  no 
creditor  account  at  all  against  them. 

Mandell  Creighton. 


54 


Prayi^rfi  for  ®n&ag 


XXVIII.     A    PRAYER    OF    DESIRE 

OGOD,  Who  hast  filled  us  with  yearnings  of 
an  infinite  desire,  longings  insatiable,  groan- 
ings  that  cannot  be  uttered:  Who  providest  for 
us  here  beauty  and  joy  beset  with  pangs,  that  our 
eyes  and  ears  may  fail  after  that  which  they  have 
not  seen  or  heard,  and  our  heart  sicken  with  hope 
deferred  while  we  conceive  not  that  which  we  wait 
for:  O  God,  Whom,  not  having  seen,  we  love,  and 
know  for  that  which,  not  knowing,  we  desire,  bring 
us  home  to  Thee,  each  of  us,  all  of  us,  from  any 
height  or  depth,  at  any  time,  with  or  without 
anything  or  all  things;  only  bring  us,  ourselves, 
our  very  selves,  all  ourselves,  to  Thine  own  Presence 
which  is  our  home;  bring  us  home  one  with  another, 
all  home  to  Thee.  By  Him  who  is  our  Way  and  our 
Door,  Thy  Son  our  only  hope,  Jesus  Christ.     Amen. 

Meditation:    No  compromise  in  the  affairs  of  the  spirit. 

GOD  is  the  embodiment  of  all  our  ideals.  It  is  He 
who  gives  them  reality  and  substance.  Without 
Him  we  never  could  feel  them  to  be  anything  more  tlian 
the  product  of  fancy.  Just  because  He  is  the  substance  of 
our  ideals  there  is  no  rest  and  no  peace  till  we  surrender 
to  Him,  for  in  yielding  to  our  best  self  we  are  realizing  the 
ideal  manhood  or  ideal  womanhood  to  which  our  creation 
pledges  us. 


Praupra  for  ®o5ag 


It  is  here  that  we  touch  upon  the  secret  of  the  ineffec- 
tiveness of  so  many  Uves.  They  are  the  result  of  a  weak 
and  futile  compromise.  In  the  political  and  social  spheres 
compromise  is  a  necessity  and  even  a  virtue;  in  the  spir- 
itual reahn  it  spells  disaster,  for  it  means  division,  lack  of 
unity  of  aim  and  purpose. 

Those  who  compromise  are  not  at  one  with  themselves; 
their  life  is-  in  a  state  of  conflict — and  this  means  a  state 
of  weakness  and  inefficiency. 

There  is  hope,  glorious  and  abundant  hope,  for  the  man 
who  commits  himself  unreservedlj^  to  the  ideal;  there  is 
even  hope  for  the  man  who  gives  himself  absolutely  to  evil, 
because  he  will  discover  in  due  season  that  the  universe 
is  not  so  made  that  evil  in  the  long  run  can  triumph. 

He  will  learn  that  in  suppressing  the  admonitions  of  hi  5 
better  self,  and  in  confining  his  life  within  the  limits  of 
the  purely  natm-al,  he  is  trying  to  do  the  impossible,  to 
follow  a  way  of  life  which  unplies  a  fundamental  spiritual 
contradiction. 

But  what  hope  is  there  for  the  man  who  shilly-shallies 
between  good  and  evil,  who  now  ranges  himself  on  the 
side  of  the  spirit,  and  now  on  the  side  of  its  relentless 
enemies?  There  is  no  hope  for  such  a  man  in  the  world, 
or,  so  far  as  one  can  see,  in  any  other  world. 

It  is  a  deep  truth  of  experience  that  with  God  it  is  all  or 
nothing.  When  we  give  Him  all,  He  returns  our  all  back 
to  us,  only  with  a  new  fullness  of  meaning  and  with  new 
and  higher  ambitions  to  be  realized. 

Samuel  McComb. 

►I^  56  ^ 


Pragprs  for  ©o&ag 


XXIX.     FOR      FAITHFULNESS      IN      WORK 
AND   TRIAL 

OTHOU  Who  art,  and  art  to  be.  There  are  no 
seasons  unto  Thee.  But  unto  us  Thou  hast 
appointed  a  set  time  upon  the  earth,  and  the  shadow 
on  our  dial  lengthens  out.  Our  moments  of  faithful 
duty  follow  us  from  the  past  and  do  not  perish ;  our 
wasted  hours  we  cannot  gather  up  and  they  are  clean 
gone  forever.  Hasten  us,  even  with  Thy  chastise- 
ments, O  Thou  great  Taskmaster,  and  say  unto  us, 
"Fulfil  ye  your  works  ere  the  sun  goeth  down." 

Remind  us  of  Thy  servant  Jesus,  who  in  fewest 
days  finished  Thy  divinest  work;  and  fill  us  with 
His  spirit  of  holy  alacrity.  In  the  loneliness  of 
temptation,  may  we  be  steadfast  through  all  the 
faintness  of  soul,  and  stand  in  awe  and  sin  not. 
In  the  retreat  of  anguish,  may  we  still  say,  "The  cup 
which  My  Father  hath  given  me,  shall  I  not  drink 
it?"  and  rise  up  to  bear  our  cross  with  patience. 

Amid  the  vain  shows  of  the  world  may  we  never 
be  bewildered  or  dismayed,  remembering  that  the 
souls  of  the  righteous  are  in  Thy  hands,  and  there 
shall  no  evil  touch  them.     Amen. 


57 


^  PragrrB  for  ®o&ag  ^ 

Meditation:    The  best  man  is  the  truest  man. 

"/"^HRIST  is  the  perfect  man,"  we  say.     When  we 

V->  say  that  we  ought  to  mean  Christ  is  the  only  abso- 
lutely true  man  that  has  ever  hved;  that  all  men,  just  as 
far  as  they  fall  short  of  Christ,  fall  short  of  humanity; 
that  not  that  Jesus  should  be  sinless,  but  that  every  other 
human  being  who  ever  lived  should  be  a  sinner,  is  the 
real  moral  wonder  of  the  world. 

Here,  and  here  only,  can  come  the  real  meaning  of  the 
sinfulness  of  sin.  Let  me  go  about  always  saying  to  my- 
self, "To  err  is  human!"  and  what  chance  is  there  that  I, 
being  conscious  of  and  rejoicing  in  my  himaanity,  should 
think  it  terrible  to  do  what  I  believe  no  man  can  be  human 
without  doing? 

Somebody  meets  me  and  says,  "Christ!"  "Ah  yes!"  I 
answer;  "but  then,  you  know,  He  was  a  peculiar  sort  of 
man.  He  was  not  just  man  like  us!  We  cannot  think  that 
we  can  be  what  He  was.  That  would  be  to  degrade  His 
divinity  and  to  depreciate  His  work." 

So  we  talk  with  a  false  show  of  reverence,  when  really 
just  the  opposite  is  true.  Really  we  disown  and  mis- 
interpret Christ  when  we  refuse  to  see  in  Him  the  true 
type  of  man,  on  seeing  which  no  man  has  a  right  to  be 
satisfied  or  rest  until  he  comes  to  be  like  Him. 

The  best  man  is  the  truest  man.  It  is  in  our  best  mo- 
ments, not  in  our  worst  moments,  that  we  are  most  gen- 
uninely  ourselves.  Oh,  believe  in  5^our  noblest  impulses, 
in  your  purest  instincts,  in  your  most  unworldly  and 
spiritual  thoughts!  Phillips  Brooks. 

►!<  58  ^ 


JPrapra  for  Sobag 


XXX.     FOR   SINCERITY   IN   THE   WORK 
OF   LIFE 

GIVE  me,  O  Lord,  a  real  love  for  the  day's 
work,  but  deliver  me  from  its  bondage  after 
the  hours  of  toil  are  over.  May  I  find  it  a  joy  to  do 
the  little  tedious  things  that  make  up  the  monotony 
of  the  house  or  shop  because  they  are  part  of  the 
King's  housework.  And  when  the  day  is  done, 
may  it  leave  me,  not  with  tangled  nerves  and 
jarring  thoughts,  but  with  the  consciousness  of 
having  done  my  best  and  pleased  Thee  well! 

Lord,  help  me  to  live  the  sincere  life!  Give  to 
me  that  thought  and  thorough  honesty  which 
gathers  a  moral  reserve  against  sudden  strains! 
Keep  me  from  trifling  living  and  careless  thinking 
and  frivolous  talking,  that  when  the  winds  blow 
and  the  tempests  rage,  I  may  find  myself  untroubled 
and  unafraid,  because  I  have  found  reality  in  the 
Rock  of  Ages.     Amen. 

Meditation:     The  higher  righteousness  exceeds  all  legal  re- 
quirements inasmuch  as  it  is  motived  by  love. 

THE  most  searching  words  of  the  psalmists  and  proph- 
ets never  penetrated  so  far  into  the  hidden  im- 
pulses and  motives  of  the  heart  as  did  the  words  of  Jesus, 
while  His  example,  held  up  before  His  followers  as  the  rule 
of  their  life,  formed  a  more  exacting  standard,  and  called 

^  59  >h 


for  a  more  entire  forgetfulness  of  self,  than  any  previous 
seer  or  lawgiver  had  dared  to  demand.  He  came  to  liber- 
ate men  from  the  heavy  burdens  which  the  Jewish  legalists 
had  laid  upon  their  shoulders,  and  yet  the  righteousness 
which  He  demanded  was  not  less,  but  more  thorough  and 
exigent  than  theirs. 

"For  I  say  unto  you,  except  your  righteousness  shall 
exceed  the  righteousness  of  the  scribes  and  Pharisees,  ye 
shall  in  no  wise  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven." 

This  sentence  from  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  expresses 
the  same  truth  as  Paul  worked  out  in  his  own  intense 
experience — that  true  righteousness  is  something  deeper 
and  more  penetrating  than  the  fulfilment  of  the  most 
arduous  round  of  legal  or  ceremonial  observance,  that  it 
requires  an  altogether  different  attitude  of  the  will  and  a 
change  in  the  whole  method  of  moral  life. 

Thus  the  demand  of  Jesus  was  not  for  outward  con- 
formity to  a  precisely  defined  and  limited  standard,  but 
for  a  thorough  inward  cleansing  of  a  man's  whole  nature, 
and  the  sacrifice  of  all  merely  personal  aims  in  order  that 
he  might  be  able  to  share  the  aims  and  the  work  of  Jesus 
Himself. 

The  Christian's  duty  is  not  to  be  measured  in  the  set 
terms  of  a  legal  code,  but  shares  the  infinitude  of  the 
world's  need  and  the  opportunities  for  service  which  spring 
from  it.  C.  F.  Barbour. 


HE^  60 


^  Prayers  fnr  ao&ay  ►f' 

XXXI.     FOR    JOY 

OGOD,  Author  of  the  world's  joy,  Bearer  of 
the  world's  pain,  make  us  glad  that  we  are 
men  and  that  we  have  inherited  the  world's  bur 
den;  deliver  us  from  the  luxury  of  cheap  melan- 
choly; and,  at  the  heart  of  all  our  trouble  and 
sorrow,  let  unconquerable  gladness  dwell;  through 
our  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ.     Amen. 

Meditation:    Joy  is  the  key-note  of  true  religion. 

THE  great  wave  of  asceticism  which  swept  over 
Christendom  at  an  early  period  completely  submerged 
in  many  quarters  the  rightful  joyousness  of  Christian  life. 
Even  at  the  present  day  almost  every  section  of  the  Church 
is  in  some  degree  infected  with  the  ascetic  spirit,  creating, 
especially  among  the  young,  an  impression  that  religion 
is  essentially  a  joyless  mode  of  existence.  Outside  of 
ecclesiastical  organizations  also  there  are  men  like  Carlyle, 
who  make  it  the  very  glory  of  Christianity  that  it  is  a 
"worship  of  sorrow." 

Now  it  may  be  admitted  that  Christianity,  by  its  whole 
system  of  thought,  recognizes  with  peculiar  clearness  the 
value  of  sorrow  as  a  discipline  of  life,  though  this  asj^ect 
of  its  teaching  may  be  unduly  magnified  by  ignoring  the 
numerous  recognitions  of  the  same  truth  by  moralists 
outside  of  Christendom,  even  among  the  Greeks.  But 
apart  from  that,  it  would  involve  a  complete  misappre- 

^  61  ^ 


^  JPray^rH  for  Qlnbag  *i* 

hension  of  the  Christian  spirit  to  represent  it  as  implying 
an  exclusive  worsliip  of  sorrow  or  even  a  depreciation  of 
joy  as  a  factor  of  moral  life. 

For  it  is  a  familiar  truth  that  the  best  work  in  every 
sphere  of  life  is  done  under  the  inspiration  of  joy  rather 
than  of  pain.  All  painful  consciousness  is  indicative  of 
some  morbid  process,  and  work  that  is  stimulated  by  such 
a  process  must,  almost  inevitably,  partake  of  its  morbid 
character.  The  most  efficient  worker  is  the  man  who 
takes  pleasure  in  his  work,  who  has  ceased  to  feel  it  a  painful 
task.  There  is  no  reason  for  supposing  that  this  law  does 
not  hold  in  moral  Ufe.  The  finest  morality  is  not  that 
which  is  regulated  by  a  cool,  passionless  prudence.  It  is 
rather  that  which  thrills  with  glad  enthusiasm  in  the 
loving  service  of  God  and  man. 

J.  C.  Murray. 


62  ^ 


^  Jpragprfl  for  ©obao  >i* 

XXXII.     FOR  FELLOWSHIP  WITH  GOD  AND 
WITH   MAN 

OGOD,  Thou  great  Companion  of  our  hearts, 
our  fairest  vision  of  mercy  and  truth,  of  love 
and  justice,  we  commune  with  Thee  in  all  our  ways 
of  life. 

In  Thy  presence,  as  from  a  noble  height,  we  be- 
hold the  far-stretching  vistas  of  our  days;  great 
things  become  great  and  small  things  small.  In 
the  warmth  of  great  love  our  hearts  open  to  wisdom 
and  beauty  and  move  with  kindness  and  patient 
sympathy.  Our  wills  are  strengthened  toward 
goodness  and  against  evil.  Our  joy  is  multiplied 
in  every  earnest  task  and  in  all  good  pleasures. 

With  Thee  we  would  be  co-workers  to  redeem 
the  waste  places  within  and  without.  Renew  our 
faith  in  the  gracious  kingdom  of  love  and  right- 
eousness and  may  we  have  the  will  of  Christ  to 
labor  for  its  coming  in  all  the  world.     Amen. 

Meditation:    Prayer  acts  on  character  and  character  reacts  on 
prayer. 

IT  is  the  prayer  of  the  righteous  man  which  availeth 
much,  and  here  there  seems  to  be  a  circle;  for  prayer 
has  been  presented  as  a  means  for  the  attainment  of  char- 
acter, and  now  character  is  required  as  a  condition  of 
efficacious  prayer.     And  it  is  one  of  those  logical  circles 

^  63  ^ 


Prayers  for  (Soiag 


which  must  be  accepted,  but  only  as  a  circle  which  ever 
expands.  It  means  that  prayer  must  be  sincere.  It  must 
express  the  truest  and  highest  nature  one  possesses,  and 
it  must  also  sincerely  undertake  the  reahzation  in  ordinary 
life  of  the  elevation  and  strength  gained  in  the  moment 
of  devotion. 

Character  and  prayer  are  never  twice  the  same.  They 
grow.  Each  helps  the  other.  The  good  man  gets  a  new 
outlook,  new  ideals,  when  he  prays,  and  thus  becomes 
better  than  he  was;  while  the  prayerful  man  tries  to  put 
his  prayers  into  practice  and  from  every  test  he  discovers 
the  necessity  of  other  prayers  and  learns  better  how  to 
pray.  The  righteous  man  is  the  earnest  man,  who  does 
the  best  he  knows  and  continually  seeks  fuller  knowledge. 

It  is  doubtless  with  God  much  as  it  is  with  men  in  heed- 
ing and  answering  petitions.  Men  desire  to  know  what 
kind  of  a  heart  and  will  are  back  of  the  requests  which 
come  to  them.  An  honest,  industrious  soul  gets  a  good 
response;  and  then  if  he  uses  well  what  he  gets,  he  increases 
his  credit.  It  is  reverent  to  beUeve  the  same  of  Gel  and 
of  the  moral  order  of  the  world.' 

Edward  S.  Ames. 


^  64 


JPragprfli  for  ®ol»ai| 


XXXIII.     FOR    GRACE    TO    PROFIT    BY    A 
THORN    IN    THE   FLESH 

TO  each  child  of  Thine,  as  the  price  of  the 
sensitiveness  that  feels  Thy  leading,  or  the 
effectiveness  that  does  Thy  will.  Thou  givest  some 
thorn  to  prick  the  surface  of  pride. 

Help  me  to  extract  from  mine  its  lesson  of  hu- 
mility. If  it  unfits  me  for  the  large  sphere  I  should 
choose,  surely  Thou  hast  some  modest  place  for 
me  to  fill,  some  humble  task  for  me  to  do,  with 
which  my  defects,  my  misfortunes,  my  blunders, 
even  my  repented  sins,  cannot  wholly  interfere. 
Help  me  to  take  it  cheerfully,  leaving  to  others 
the  larger  service  I  forego. 

Grant  that  my  own  secret  sorrow,  my  own  keen 
disappointment,  may  make  me  sympathetic  to 
discover,  tactful  to  treat,  the  suffering  that  lies, 
hidden  or  exposed,  in  every  human  heart. 

Thus  even  through  sorrow,  merited  or  unmerited, 
may  I  be  drawn  closer  to  Thee,  closer  to  the  suffer- 
ing Christ,  closer  to  my  needy  fellow-men.  Through 
a  deeper  tenderness,  a  profounder  humility,  a 
broader  charity,  a  gentler  helpfulness,  may  I  find 
the  heightened  joy  of  the  devoted  spirit  abundant 
compensation  for  the  sufferings  of  the  outward  man. 
Amen. 


65 


^  Prayera  fnr  ©obay  ^ 

Meditation:  True  prayer  seeks  to  bend  man's  will  to  God's  will. 

SIR  OLIVER  LODGE  reduces  the  outstanding  con- 
troversy between  science  and  faith  to  the  question 
of  the  efficacy  of  prayer.  "Is  prayer  to  hypothetical  and 
supersensuous  beings  as  senseless  and  useless  as  it  is  un- 
scientific? Or  does  prayer  pierce  through  the  husk  and 
apparently  sensuous  covering  of  the  universe  and  reach 
something  living,  loving,  and  helpful  beyond?" 

Admitting  fully  the  inflexibility  of  natural  law,  it  is  a 
very  inadequate  reason  for  ceasing  to  pray  and  is  really 
based  upon  a  low  conception  of  religion. 

The  highest  religion,  however,  sees  in  everything  that 
happens  the  expression  of  the  will  of  God,  and  while  ac- 
cepting the  whole  discipline  of  life  as  the  education  of  a 
loving  Father,  aims  at  bending  man's  will  to  God's  and  not 
God's  will  to  the  ofttimes  bfind  and  misguided  desires  of 
man.  It  does  not  conceive  that  there  is  any  a  priori  ne- 
cessity attaching  to  natural  law,  or  that  it  has  any  inde- 
pendent and  coercive  power;  for  an  analysis  of  the  idea 
of  law  will  show  that  it  has  no  meaning  except  as  the  ex- 
pression of  will. 

The  universe  then  is  governed  by  the  Divine  Will.  It 
conceives  rather  that  history  and  experience  show  that 
this  will  energizes  according  to  regular  modes  or  methods, 
which  we  have  agreed  to  call  the  laws  of  nature. 

But  what  if  there  should  be  a  law  of  prayer  amid  the 
mysteries  of  the  universe? 

From  "Religion  and  Medicine." 


>h  66 


^prayrra  for  Sobay 


XXXIV.     FOR    CONSECRATION    OF    THE 
UNCONSCIOUS   LIFE 

OLORD,  I  have  a  busy  world  around  me; 
eye,  ear,  and  thought  will  be  needed  for  all 
my  work  to  be  done  in  that  busy  world.  Now, 
ere  I  enter  upon  it,  I  would  commit  eye,  ear,  and 
thought  to  Thee! 

Do  Thou  bless  them  and  keep  their  work  Thine, 
such  as,  through  Thy  natural  laws,  my  heart  beats 
and  my  blood  flows  without  any  thought  of  mine 
for  them,  so  my  spiritual  life  may  hold  on  its  course 
at  those  times  when  my  mind  cannot  consciously 
turn  to  Thee  to  commit  each  particular  thought 
to  Thy  service. 

Hear  my  prayer  for  my  dear  Redeemer's  sake. 
Amen. 

Meditation:     By  obediejicc  to  these  rules  we  can  form  any 
habit  we  desire. 

THE  rules  of  habit  are  simple,  and  on  these  psycholo- 
gists are  practically  agreed. 

1.  Make  the  start  gradually,  but  witli  a  strong  initiative. 
Cross  the  Rul)icoii  boldly,  and  burn  the  bridge  behind  you. 

2.  All  the  more,  if  you  are  emerging  from  a  bad  into  a 
good  habit,  commit  yourself  with  the  whole  force  of  your 
will  and  the  full  flood  of  your  emotion  to  the  new  course. 
For  reaction  will  come;    and  your  resolution  will  require 

^  67  ^ 


•^  ^rayprs  for  QlnJiay  ^i* 

the  whole  benefit  of  this  self-commitment  to  prevent  your 
tm-ning  back. 

3.  Remember  the  value  of  self-mastery,  and  accustom 
yourself  to  daily  disciplme  in  the  good  habit.  In  these 
days,  when  nearly  all  ethical  exhortations  are  anti-ascetic, 
let  us  not  forget  the  value  that  lies  in  self-denial. 

4.  Begin  at  the  earliest  possible  moment,  and  try,  if  pos- 
sible,  never  to  be  guilty  of  a  single  lapse.  Remember  that 
a  single  defeat  gives  the  enemy  a  strong  vantage-ground, 
and  also  breaks  in  upon  the  moral  tradition  which  you 
have  been  creating  for  yom'self. 

5.  Put  yourself  in  the  best  possible  environment.  A  drunk- 
ard forming  habits  of  temperance  should  live  among  those 
who  wholly  abstain  from  that  which  has  proved  the  cause 
of  his  terrible  weakness.  If  injurious  surroundings  cannot 
be  changed,  the  effort  of  resistance  will  be  greatly  in- 
creased. "Nothing  exerts  so  great  an  influence  on  the 
psychical  organism  as  the  moral  atmosphere  breathed  by 
it." 

W.  S.  Bruce. 


^  68 


Prayprfi  for  Qlotiay 


XXXV.     FOR   A    SPIRIT    OF    HELPFULNESS 

ONCE  more  a  new  day  lies  before  us,  our 
Father.  As  we  go  out  among  men  to  do  our 
work,  touching  the  hands  and  lives  of  our  fellows, 
make  us,  we  pray  Thee,  friends  of  all  the  world. 
Save  us  from  blighting  the  fresh  flower  of  any 
heart  by  the  flare  of  sudden  anger  or  secret  hate. 
May  we  not  bruise  the  rightful  self-respect  of  any 
by  contempt  or  malice. 

Help  us  to  cheer  the  suffering  by  our  sympathy, 
to  freshen  the  drooping  by  our  hopefulness,  and  to 
strengthen  in  all  the  wholesome  sense  of  worth 
and  the  joy  of  life.  Save  us  from  the  deadly  poison 
of  class  pride.  Grant  that  we  may  look  all  men  in 
the  face  with  the  eyes  of  a  brother.  If  any  one 
needs  us,  make  us  ready  to  yield  our  help  ungrudg- 
ingly, unless  higher  duties  claim  us,  and  may  we 
rejoice  that  we  have  it  in  us  to  be  helpful  to  our 
fellow-men.     Amen. 

Meditation:    We  ought  to  help  all  who  need  our  help. 

SEEING  that  it  is  our  opportunity  to  uphold  all  that 
fall  and  to  raise  up  those  that   be  bowed  down,  to 
assist  all  that  are  in  danger,  necessity  and  triljulation, 
let  us  call  to  mind  those  persons  whom  we  ought  to  succor : 
The  lonely  and  sad-hearted. 
The  forsaken  and  forgotten. 

►I^  69  ^ 


*h  Pray^rfi  for  (HaiaQ  ^ 

All  sick  persons  in  pain,  weariness,  and  anxiety. 

All  who  have  defective  or  perverted  minds. 

The  ill-born  and  the  ill-trained,  who  have  had  a  child- 
hood without  joy  and  a  youth  without  discipline. 

All  who  are  addicted  to  frivolity  and  vanity,  to  empty 
speech  and  silly  thoughts. 

All  whose  temper  is  rough  in  the  grain  and  who  spoil 
the  happiness  of  the  home  by  unwitting  harshness. 

Those  who  are  morbid  about  their  own  sufferings  or 
sin,  who  sit  down  and  mourn  instead  of  standing  up  and 
doing  right. 

All  who  are  dejected  because  they  cannot  reach  the  des- 
tiny they  long  for  and  cannot  finish  the  work  they  began. 

Those  who  are  troubled  with  conflicting  tides  of  thought, 
and  who  feel  the  weight  of  unintelligible  things. 

All  who  are  separated  from  their  friends  by  behefs  which 
they  must  not  dissemble. 

All  who  have  been  bereaved  of  relatives  and  friends, 
or  are  troubled  by  the  suffering  or  sin  of  those  thej^  love. 

All  who  are  tried  by  passionate  temptations,  or  cold 
ambitions,  or  mean  suggestions. 

To  all  these  we  offer  ourselves,  that  we  may  be  strength 
to  the  weak,  comfort  to  the  sorrowful,  eyes  to  the  blind, 
feet  to  the  lame,  refuge  to  the  fearful,  and  saviors  to  the 
sinful. 

H.    YOULDEN. 


^  70 


>h  Pragrra  for  QIatiag  ^ 

XXXVI.     A   PENITENTIAL    PRAYER 

OUR  Father,  we  look  back  on  the  years  that 
are  gone,  and  shame  and  sorrow  come  upon 
us,  for  the  harm  we  have  done  to  others  rises  up 
in  our  memory  to  accuse  us.  Some  we  have  seared 
with  the  fire  of  our  lust,  and  some  we  have  scorched 
by  the  heat  of  our  anger.  In  some  we  helped  to 
quench  the  glow  of  young  ideals  by  our  selfish  pride 
and  craft,  and  in  some  we  have  nipped  the  opening 
bloom  of  faith  by  the  frost  of  our  unbelief. 

We  might  have  followed  Thy  blessed  footsteps, 
O  Christ,  binding  up  the  bruised  hearts  of  our  broth- 
ers and  guiding  the  wayward  passions  of  the  young 
to  firmer  manhood.  Instead,  there  are  poor  hearts 
now  broken  and  darkened  because  they  encountered 
us  on  the  way,  and  some  perhaps  remember  us  only 
as  the  beginning  of  their  misery  or  sin. 

O  God,  we  know  that  all  our  prayers  can  never 
bring  back  the  past,  and  no  tears  can  wash  out  the 
red  marks  with  which  we  have  scarred  some  life 
that  stands  before  our  memory  with  accusing  eyes. 
Grant  that  at  last  a  humble  and  pure  life  may  grow 
out  of  our  late  contrition,  that  in  the  brief  days 
still  left  to  us  we  may  comfort  and  heal  where  we 
have  scorned  and  crushed.  .  .  .  Grant  this  boon, 
that  so  the  face  of  Thy  Christ  may  smile  upon 
us  and  the  light  within  us  may  shine  undimmed. 
Amen. 

>i*  71  ^-h 


"i*  Pra^^ra  for  Qlohag  ^ 

Meditation:   The  new  life  makes  atonement  to  the  social  order. 

THE  new  character — the  putting  on  of  Christ,  to  use 
Paul's  re*hstic  phrase — is  developed,  not  in  solitude, 
but  amid  the  stress  and  strain  of  a  world  where  evil,  greed, 
cruelty,  and  injustice  abound  and  are  intrenched  behind 
ancient  customs  and  institutions,  where  men  and  women 
are  the  victims  of  organic  and  corporate  corruption. 

The  new  man  is  in  a  state  of  clironic  revolt  against  his 
sinful  environment;  hence  he  is  pledged  to  the  cause  of 
social  righteousness. 

The  new  man  is  pledged  by  his  vision  of  Christ  to  the 
cause  of  social  reform.  All  the  great  mystics  were  the 
social  regenerators  of  their  time,  and  today  much  of  the 
fussiness  and  shallowness  of  social  effort  rises  from  the  ab- 
sence of  the  mystical  motive. 

The  new  man  is  constrained  to  undertake  some  form 
of  social  service  because  of  the  nature  of  the  new  life  that 
is  welling  up  within  him.  In  him  God  now  lives  and  ener- 
gizes through  him  in  a  way  in  which  he  did  not  live  or 
energize  before.  But  God's  life  is  an  atoning  life.  He 
bears  vicariously  the  sins  and  sufferings,  the  wi'ongs  and 
shames,  of  the  world.  "  In  all  their  affliction  He  is  afflicted." 
And  as  He  bears  them  He  is  working  mightily  to  abolish 
them. 

Samuel  McComb, 


72 


JPragrra  fnr  a^ohn^ 


XXXVII.     FOR   SELF-SURRENDER   TO   GOD' 

I  WOULD  rest  in  Thee,  O  Lord,  and  be  at  peace. 
I  would  forget  my  disappointed  hopes,  my  fruit- 
less efforts,  all  the  vain  struggles  of  a  divided  mind, 
and  in  Thy  great  love  I  would  find  myself,  no  longer 
weak  and  broken,  but  strong  with  a  new  hope, 
eager  to  follow  where  Thou  may'st  lead. 

Enter  Thou  into  my  heart  and  there  manifest 
Thy  healing  power. 

Transform  into  Thy  likeness  every  thought  and 
purpose.  Perfect  Thy  strength  in  my  weakness; 
glorify  Thy  grace  in  my  unworthiness,  that  through 
me  Thy  abundant  life  may  overflow  to  other  souls. 
So  draw  my  inmost  self  to  Thee,  that  I  shall  be  re- 
deemed from  every  evil  way,  that  in  the  shining  of 
Thy  beauty  all  the  lesser  lures  of  the  world  shall 
cease  to  charm.  Abide  Thou  within  me  as  a 
spirit  of  quiet  strength  and  gladness,  of  insight  and 
of  peace,  and  then  shall  duty  become  a  joy,  and  life 
a  thing  to  be  desired;  then  shall  every  failure  be 
redeemed,  and  all  my  doing  shall  be  pure. 

O  quickening  Love,  let  Thy  will  be  done,  let  Thy 
Kingdom  come  in  me.     Amen. 

Meditation:     Evil  is  overcome  not  by  attacking  it,  but  by 
setting  our  minds  on  virtue. 

TO  pray  against  certain  sins  to  which  we  have  rendered 
ourselves  liable  is  to  strengthen  them;   and  that  for 
the  reason  that  prayer  against  them  is  directing  attention 

^  73  >h 


Prag^ra  for  (Lahn^ 


to  them;  and  to  direct  our  attention  to  them  is  to  find 
ourselves  once  more  enjoying  them,  and  that  is  more  than 
half  the  victory  for  the  sin.  This  explains  why  some  men 
sin  in  spite  of  their  prayers. 

Delacroix,  in  describing  the  life  of  St.  Teresa,  says: 
"This  state  of  division  and  war  kept  her  tendencies  in 
check,  but  also  kept  them  aUve  by  the  very  effort  she  di- 
rected against  them."  The  continual  struggle  against  sin 
keeps  it  active.  Men  fight  their  iniquities  and  their  tempta- 
tions hand  to  hand,  and  the  more  they  do  so  the  stronger 
the  iniquities  or  the  tenotptations  grow.  The  Gospel  remedy 
and  the  psychological  is  to  turn  to  God.  In  truth,  the 
only  effective  inhibition  of  any  inward  evil  is  to  turn  the 
attention  not  on  the  evil  we  mean  to  flee,  but  on  the  life 
we  mean  to  attain.  "Forgetting  the  things  which  are  be- 
hind, we  press  towards  the  mark  of  our  high  calling." 
And  we  forget,  not  by  trying  to  forget,  but  by  setting  our 
mind  on  the  goal.  We  do  not  first  die  to  sin  in  order  that 
we  may  thereafter  five  to  God;  we  five  to  God,  and  so 
die  to  sin. 

In  my  boyhood  I  was  taken  to  see  a  famous  quarry. 
Over  what  appeared  to  me  a  great  gulf  had  been  made 
a  pathway  one  plank  broad  for  wheelbarrows,  and  over 
that  perilous  path  quarrymen  were  wheeling  loads  of  earth. 
I  asked  how  the  thing  was  possible,  and  the  quarrjonan 
explained  that  he  was  able  to  wheel  the  barrow  without 
stumbling  by  fixing  his  eye  on  the  further  goal.  It  was 
his  concentrated  attention  on  that  that  kept  him  safe. 

George  Steven. 

^  ~74  S 


Prag^ra  for  ©oJiag 


XXXVIII.     FOR    THE    LOVE    OF    FRIENDS 

OLORD  OF  LOVE,  in  Whom  alone  I  live, 
kindle  in  my  soul  Thy  fire  of  love;  give  me 
to  lay  myself  aside,  and  to  think  of  others  as  I 
kneel  to  Thee. 

For  those  whom  Thou  hast  given  me,  dear  to  me 
as  my  own  soul.  Thy  best  gift  on  earth,  I  ask  Thy 
blessing. 

If  they  are  now  far  away,  so  that  I  cannot  say 
loving  words  to  them  today,  yet  be  Thou  near 
them,  give  them  of  Thy  joy,  order  their  ways, 
keep  them  from  sickness,  from  sorrow  and  from 
sin,  and  let  all  things  bring  them  closer  to  Thee. 

If  they  are  near  me,  give  us  wisdom  and  grace 
to  be  true  helpers  of  one  another,  serving  in  love's 
service  all  day  long. 

Let  nothing  come  between  us  to  cloud  our  per- 
fect trust,  but  help  each  to  love  more  truly,  more 
steadfastly,  more  unselfishly. 

And  not  only  for  those  I  love,  but  for  others: 
for  all  who  are  lonely,  or  weary,  or  sad;  for  all 
who  are  turning  away  from  the  light;  for  all  who 
have  forgotten  Thee,  I  pray.  Lord,  have  pity  on 
them. 

Keep  me  from  all  the  hard  and  bitter  thoughts 
that  I  like  too  well,  from  envy  and  jealousy  and 
pride,  and  give  me  the  mind  of  Christ  to  rejoice  in  the 
lowest  place  where  loving  souls  may  serve.     Amen. 


►i^  Prayers  for  Qloh<x^ 


Meditation:     Pride  is  a  denial  of  the  soul's  greatest  good. 

IF  we  could  trace  back  to  its  psychological  genesis  the 
pride  in  the  haughty  man  or  the  heartless  woman,  we 
should  find  that  it  sprang  from  nothing  worse  than  this 
childish  impulse  to  shield  one's  self;  and  that  only  gradu- 
a]ly  had  this  impulse  of  self-shielding  growTi  into  its  ocUous 
and  hideous  counterpart  of  ignoring,  slighting,  and  hurting 
others. 

When  full-blown,  however,  pride  is  one  of  the  most 
deadly  sins.  It  is  the  very  antithesis  of  that  love  which  is 
God's  will  for  us,  and  our  own  true  good.  Love  looks  kindly 
and  sympathetically  on  all:  sees  others  and  ourselves  in 
true  proportions  and  relations;  recognizes  how  small  and 
imperfect  a  part  of  the  whole  the  individual,  even  at  his 
best,  must  be;  and  gladly  confesses  that  there  is  none 
good  but  one,  that  is,  God. 

Pride,  on  the  contrary,  is  puffed  up;  behaves  itself  un- 
seemly, is  easily  provoked,  thinketh  all  manner  of  evil, 
rejoiceth  in  other  people's  iniquity.  It  is  the  denial,  the 
drying  up  within  one,  of  the  very  principle  of  love.  In 
his  cruel  cutting  of  others  off  from  himself,  the  proud  man 
cuts  himself  off  from  God. 

Pride  is  as  lifeless  as  it  is  loveless. 

W.  De  Witt  Hyde. 


76 


Prayers  for   (Holiay 


XXXIX.     FOR  THE  VISION   OF   CHRIST   IN 
ALL   SOULS 

Christ  of  Judea,  look  Thou  in  my  heart. 
Do  I  not  love  Thee,  look  to  Thee,  in  Thee 
Alone  have  faith  of  all  the  sons  of  men — 
Faith  deepening, with  the  weight  and  woe  of  years? 
Pure  soul  and  tenderest  of  all  that  came 
Into  this  world  of  sorrow,  hear  my  prayer. 
Lead  me,  yea,  lead  me  deeper  into  life. 
This  suffering,  human  life  wherein  Thou  liv'st 
And  breathest  still,   and  hold'st  Thy  way  Divine. 
'Tis  here,  O  pitying  Christ,  where  Thee  I  seek, 
Here  where  the  strife  is  fiercest;    where  the  sun 
Beats  down  upon  the  highway  thronged  with  men, 
And  in  the  raging  mart.     Oh!    deeper  lead 
My  soul  into  the  living  world  of  souls 
Where  Thou  dost  move. 

But  lead  me,  Man  Divine, 
Where'er  Thou  will'st,  only  that  I  may  find 
At  the  long  journey's  end  Thy  image  there, 
And  grow  more  like  it!     For  art  not  Thou 
The  human  shadow  of  the  Infinite  Love, 
That  made  and  fills  the  endless  universe. 
The  very  Word  of  Him,  the  Unseen,  Unknown 
Eternal  Good  that  rules  the  summer  flower 
And  all  the  worlds  that  people  starry  space! 

Amen. 


77  ^ 


Prag^rH  for  ©nbag 


Meditation:     What  makes  a  man  a  Christian? 

IT  is  well  known  what  place  is  given  in  Scripture  to  faith, 
hope,  and  love.  What  are  these?  They  are  three 
feelings;  and  they  are  the  three  master-feelings — the  tap- 
roots among  the  innumerable  roots  and  rootlets  of  feeling 
in  our  nature.  These  tap-roots  must  be  sunk  somewhere, 
and  the  soil  in  which  they  are  embedded  will  determine 
the  character  of  the  man.  When  they  are  rooted  in  Christ, 
the  man  is  a  Christian. 

There  are  few  reflections  more  pathetic  than  that  in 
our  nature  there  may  be  lying  possibilities  unused  and 
faculties  mideveloped  which  might  be  copious  sources  of 
both  happiness  and  usefulness.  Perhaps,  indeed,  there  may 
be  in  all  possibihties  which,  in  this  life  at  least,  are  prov- 
identially prevented  from  developing  naturally  and  fully; 
but  it  is  sad  when  these  possibihties  remain  unrealized, 
through  our  own  fault. 

No  man  can  be  a  man  ra  the  fullest  sense  of  the  word 
if  his  nature  be  shut  against  the  influence  of  the  things  that 
are  above;  in  that  case,  there  are  possibilities  of  expansion 
and  excellence  lying  in  him  waste  and  barren;  and  these 
are  the  noblest  possibilities  of  all. 

No  woman  can  attain  to  perfect  womanliness  unless  her 
heart  has  opened  to  the  softening  and  refining  influence  of 
the  love  of  Christ.  We  may  miss  many  things  in  this  world 
and  yet  not  have  Uved  in  vain,  but  the  secret  and  the 
glory  of  life  are  missed  altogether  if  the  gatewaj^s  which 
admit  the  influence  of  the  Eternal  have  never  been  opened. 

James  Stalker. 

^  78  ^ 


Prag^ra  for  elohag 


XL.      FOR    VICTORY    IN    THE    BATTLE    OF 
LIFE 

MASTER  of  all  things,  Lord  of  all,  Who  hast 
so  ordered  it  that  life  from  the  beginning 
shall  be  a  struggle  throughout  the  course,  and  even 
to  the  end,  so  guide  and  order  that  struggle  within 
us  that  at  last  what  is  good  in  us  may  conquer 
and  all  evil  be  overcome,  that  all  things  may  be 
brought  into  harmony  and  God  may  be  all  in  all. 
So  do  Thou  guide  and  govern  us,  that  every  day, 
whatsoever  betide  us,  some  gain  to  better  things, 
some  more  blessed  joy  in  higher  things  may  be 
ours,  that  so  we,  though  but  weaklings,  may  yet, 
God-guided,  go  from  strength  to  strength,  until  at 
last,  delivered  from  that  burden  of  the  flesh  through 
which  comes  so  much  struggling,  we  may  enter 
into  the  land  of  harmony  and  of  eternal  peace. 
Hear  us,  of  Thy  mercy;  through  Jesus  Christ  our 
Lord.     Amen. 

Meditation:  Every  man  is  called  to  be  a  soldier  in  the  spiritual 
order. 

THE  soldier's  life  is  the  figure  under  which  St.  Paul 
represents  that  other  warfare  which  -the  servant  of 
Christ  is  ever  carrying  on  against  himself  and  against 
the  world.  "Take  unto  you  the  whole  armour  of  God, 
that  ye  may  be  able  to  withstand  in  the  evil  day,  and, 
having  done  all,  to  stand." 

►J.  79  ^ 


Pray^ra  for  ©nbaij 


We  speak  of  the  Church  militant  here  on  earth  against 
various  forms  of  evil;  there  is  a  battle  going  on  be- 
tween the  spirit  and  the  flesh,  between  knowledge 
and  ignorance,  between  the  higher  and  the  lower 
principles  of  human  nature,  and  we  imagine  to  ourselves 
allies  fighting  on  either  side,  and  that  in  this  battle  God 
and  the  angels  are  spectators.  And  we  sometimes  con- 
trast the  disorder  of  this  world  with  the  peace  and  order 
of  another. 

"Thy  will  be  done  on  earth  as  it  is  in  heaven." 

Yet  we  know  also  how  greatly  all  Churches  have  fallen 
short  of  their  mission;  how  they  have  often  made  a  com- 
promise with  the  world,  instead  of  resisting  its  evils;  and 
how  in  our  own  Uves  there  is  comparatively  Uttle  of  struggle 
and  effort,  but  a  falling  in  with  the  world,  and  acquiescence 
in  the  customs  and  opinions  of  men. 

A  life  such  as  that  which  I  have  just  been  describing 
awakens  us  to  a  sense  of  the  unreality  of  our  own  lives. 
For  no  man  can  be  at  peace  with  himself  who  has  not 
also  been  at  war  with  himself  at  some  time  or  other;  and 
there  is  a  victory  which  a  man  wins  over  himseK  when  he 
has  subjugated  his  passions  to  the  purposes  of  God  in  the 
government  of  the  world,  when  he  has  fought  against 
the  sins  and  prejudices  which  so  easily  beset  us,  when  he 
has  learned  to  live  not  to  himself,  but  to  God — this  is  what 
the  Scripture  calls  the  good  soldier  of  Jesus  Christ. 

Benjamin  Jowett. 


80 


XLI.     A    MORNING    PRAYER    FOR 
ENCOURAGEMENT 

OGOD,  my  heavenly  Father,  I,  Thy  child, 
come  now  to  Thy  feet  with  my  supplications. 
I  cannot  live  without  Thy  blessing.  Life  is  too 
hard  for  me,  duty  is  too  large.  I  get  discouraged, 
and  my  feeble  hands  hang  down.  I  come  to  Thee 
with  my  weakness,  asking  Thee  for  strength.  Help 
me  always  to  be  of  good  cheer.  Let  me  not  be  dis- 
heartened by  difficulties.  Let  me  never  doubt  Thy 
love  or  any  of  Thy  promises. 

Give  me  grace  to  be  an  encourager  to  others, 
never  a  discourager.  Let  me  not  go  about  with 
sadness  or  fear  among  men,  but  may  I  be  a  bene- 
diction to  every  one  I  meet,  always  making  life 
easier,  never  harder,  for  those  who  come  within 
my  influence. 

Help  me  to  be  as  a  Christ  to  others,  that  they 
may  see  something  of  His  love  in  my  life  and  learn 
to  love  Him  in  me.  I  beseech  Thee  to  hear  me,  to 
receive  my  prayer,  and  forgive  my  sins;  for  the 
sake  of  Jesus  Christ.     Amen. 

Meditation:    Every  vision  implies  a  task. 

YOU  have  been  pondering  and  studying.  Somehow 
it  has  become  clear  to  you,  let  us  say,  that  there  is  a 
God.  The  supernatural  behind  the  natural,  the  will  he- 
hind  all  forces,  has  revealed  itself  to  you. 

►I^  81  ►t" 


^  Praypra  for   Eahtx^  *h 

For  the  moment,  it  is  enough  for  you  just  to  know  that 
mighty  truth.  Turning  it  this  way  and  that,  you  think 
in  one  view  and  another  how  mighty  it  is.  But  very  soon, 
if  you  are  a  true  seeker,  your  nature  begins  to  feel  and  hear 
a  stir  upon  the  other  side  of  it.  Under  the  windows  which 
look  toward  the  world,  the  tumult  of  the  needy  Ufe  of  your 
fellow-men  comes  rising  up  to  you. 

Perhaps  it  is  more  definite  than  that  and  certain  special 
fellow-men  come,  with  footsteps  wliich  you  can  hear,  up 
to  your  heart's  doors  and  knock.  At  first  their  coming 
seems  to  be  only  an  intrusion.  Why  can  they  not  leave 
you  alone  with  your  great  idea?  But  by  and  by  you  see 
more  vividly.  You  begin  to  wonder  whether  their  coming 
on  this  side  of  you  is  not  the  true  correlative  and  corre- 
spondent of  the  coming  of  the  vision  on  he  other  side  of  you. 
You  begin  to  feel  that  the  practical  Ufe  may  be  needed  to 
complete  the  meditative  life.  If  you  open  the  door  to  your 
intinisive  fellow-men  you  find  that  it  indeed  is  so.  Your 
idea  of  God  falUng  upon  the  many  mirrors  of  their  various 
needs  and  natures  gains  new  interpretations  and  illumina- 
tions. 

Their  human  hearts  get  hold  of  the  reality  of  God,  which 
they  never  could  have  found  out  for  themselves,  through 
your  beUef  in  it.  And  your  own  life  open  on  both  sides, 
on  this  side  to  the  vision,  and  on  that  side  to  the  men, 
grows  rich  and  sacred  as  being  the  room  in  which  that 
most  deep  and  interesting  transaction  which  the  world  can 
witness,  the  meeting  of  truth  with  the  human  mind,  takes 
place. 

Phillips  Brooks. 

^  82  ^ 


Jprag^rH  for  ©obag 


XLII.     AN  EVENING  PRAYER  FOR  DIVINE 
HELP   AND   BLESSING 

WE  beseech  Thee,  Lord,  to  behold  us  with  favor, 
weak  men  and  women  subsisting  under  the 
covert  of  Thy  patience. 

Be  patient  still;  suffer  us  yet  awhile  longer — 
with  our  broken  purposes  of  good,  with  our  idle 
endeavors  against  evil — suffer  us  awhile  longer  to 
endure  and  (if  it  may  be)  help  us  to  do  better. 
Bless  to  us  our  extraordinary  mercies;  if  the  day 
come  when  these  must  be  taken,  brace  us  to  play 
the  man  under  affliction. 

Go  with  each  of  us  to  rest;  if  any  wake,  temper 
to  them  the  dark  hours  of  watching;  and  when 
the  day  returns,  return  to  us,  our  sun  and  comforter, 
and  call  us  up  with  morning  faces  and  with  morning 
hearts — eager  to  labor — eager  to  be  happy,  if  hap- 
piness shall  be  our  portion — and,  if  the  day  be 
marked  for  sorrow,  strong  to  endure  it.     Amen. 

Meditation:    The  main  object  of  religion  is  not  to  get  a  man 
into  heaven,  but  to  get  heaven  into  him. 

IT  is  well  at  night  before  we  sleep  to  examine  ourselves: 
Have  we  endeavored  to  keep  our  body  in  health? 
Have  we  restrained  our  appetites  and  passions?  Have 
we  resisted  any  temptation?  Have  we  committed  any  sin? 
Have  we  wronged  any  one?    Have  we  done  any  one  any 

►I^  83  4^ 


Praypra  for  Sohay 


harm?    Have  we  done  any  one  any  good?    Have  we  done 
our  best? 

"The  peace  of  God,  which  passeth  all  understanding," 
is  held  out  to  us  as,  and  certainly  is,  one  of  the  greatest 
and  most  inestimable  blessings  we  can  any  of  us  hope  to 
attain.  "Eye  hath  not  seen  nor  ear  heard,  neither  hath 
entered  into  the  heart  of  man  the  things  which  God  hath 
prepared  for  them  that  love  Him." 

In  times  of  sorrow  and  anxiety  it  is  the  best  and  greatest 
consolation.  The  main  object  of  religion  is  not  to  get  a 
man  into  heaven,  but  to  get  heaven  into  him.  This  is 
impossible  if  we  allow  the  mind  to  dwell  on  e\dl  thoughts. 

Most  sins  are  committed  in  thought  before  they  are 
translated  into  act.  Those  who  let  their  thoughts  dwell 
on  evil  are  only  too  likely  to  let  their  actions  follow  their 
thoughts;  and  those  who  keep  their  minds  on  what  is 
pure  and  good  are  least  likely  to  do  what  is  bad.  The  mind 
is  dj^ed  by  its  thoughts. 

"Whatsoever  things  are  true,  whatsoever  things  are 
honest,  whatsoever  things  are  just,  whatsoever  things  are 
pure,  whatsoever  things  are  lovely,  whatsoever  things  are 
of  good  report:  if  there  be  any  virtue,  and  if  there  be  any 
praise,  think  on  these  things." 

This  is  in  our  power.  .  .  . 

Lord  Avebury. 


84 


3?rau^rs  for  uJotiag 


XLIII.     FOR   THE   BLESSEDNESS   OF  SELF- 
GIVING 

EVERLASTING  FATHER,  I  beseech  Thee  to 
enable  me  to  love  Thee  with  all  my  heart  and 
soul  and  strength  and  mind,  and  my  neighbor  as 
myself. 

Help  me  to  be  meek  and  lowly  in  heart.  Sweeten 
my  temper  and  dispose  me  to  be  kind  and  helpful 
to  all  men.  Make  me  kind  in  thought,  gentle  in 
speech,  generous  in  action.  Teach  me  that  it  is 
more  blessed  to  give  than  to  receive;  that  it  is 
better  to  minister  than  to  be  ministered  unto; 
better  to  forget  myself  than  to  put  myself  forward. 

Deliver  me  from  anger  and  from  envy;  from  all 
harsh  thoughts  and  unlovely  manners.  Make  me 
of  some  use  in  this  world;  may  I  more  and  more 
forget  myself  and  work  the  work  of  Him  who  sent 
me  here;   through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord.     Amen. 

Meditation:    Self-forgetfulness  is  the  secret  of  strength. 

WOULDST  thou  truly  behold  thyself?  Then  must 
thou  witli  open  face  behold  as  in  a  glass  His  glory. 
Thou  wilt  never  be('ome  a  jwwor  to  thj'self  until  God 
has  become  all  in  thee;  tliou  wilt  never  really  live  until 
thou  hast  lived  in  Him. 

Forget  thj\self,  my  soul.  Forget  thy  i)rido  and  tliy 
selfishness,  thy  cares  and  thy  crosses,  thy  world  wliicii 

^  85  * 


^  Prag^ra  tax  ©oJiag  >i* 

thou  bearest  within  thee.  Unbar  the  doors  of  thy  being 
to  the  sunsliine  of  that  other  Presence  that  ah-eady  stands 
without,  waiting  to  get  in. 

And,  verily,  thy  forgetfulness  shall  make  thee  strong, 
thy  sui-render  shall  make  thee  mighty,  thy  dying  unto 
seK  shall  make  thee  ahve  for  evermore.  Thy  form  shall 
be  beautiful  when  it  is  gilded  by  His  light,  thy  voice  shall 
be  melodious  when  it  is  tuned  by  His  music,  thy  heart  shall 
be  on  fire  when  it  is  quickened  by  His  love:  thou  slialt  be 
everything  when  God  shall  be  all. 

George  Matheson. 


^  86 


^  Prayers  for  ©nbay  ^ 

XLIV.     A    PENITENTIAL    PRAYER 

FATHER,  I  bring  to  Thee  the  years  stained 
with  sin  and  failure.  Thy  voice  within  me, 
too  long  muffled  with  false  pleasures  and  empty 
dreams,  has  at  last  pierced  me  to  the  quick  and 
I  am  ashamed  of  all  the  evil  I  have  done. 

When  I  think  of  the  disorder  of  my  life,  I 
dread  the  look  of  Thy  holiness;  and  yet  I  am 
driven  to  Thee  by  a  longing  which  no  fear  can  chill 
and  no  sin  can  wither.  Thou  Virtue  of  my  soul, 
enter  into  it  and  so  fit  it  for  Thyself  that  hence- 
forth it  may  be  wholly  Thine.  I  ask  for  no  lessening 
of  the  pain  which  sin  has  wrought  me.  Let  my 
weakness  be  from  Thee,  for  I  know  that  then  it 
shall  be  my  strength. 

Only  abide  Thou  within  me,  Lord  of  my  con- 
science, Strengthener  of  my  will,  Fulfiller  of  my 
hopes,  and  I  will  fear  no  more.  Give  me  the  glory 
of  the  lighted  mind  that  henceforth  I  may  see  my- 
self a  debtor  to  every  man,  and  count  no  sacrifice 
too  grievous,  no  burden  too  heavy,  if  thereby  I  can 
serve  the  humblest  of  Thy  children.  Suffer  me 
not  to  sink  in  dismay  before  the  greatness  of  my 
debt,  but  summon  Thou  all  my  powers  and  give 
me  no  rest  till  I  have  paid  the  uttermost  farthing. 
Amen. 


^  Prayers  for  ©oiag  ^ 

——  J 

Meditation:    The  true  penitent  shrinks  from  no  atoning  pain. 

WITHOUT  divine  grace,  indeed,  man  may  not  save 
himself.  Yet  grace  demands  that  the  individual 
will  shall  co-operate.  "The  only  way  to  get  rid  of  a  past," 
says  Phillips  Brooks,  "is  to  get  a  future  out  of  it." 

The  case  of  the  sirmer  is  not  hopeless;  yet,  on  the  other 
hand,  he  may  not  give  up  either  in  complacency  or  despair, 
trusting  to  others  to  do  the  work  of  redemption  for  him. 
The  discipline  of  his  sin  is  stern,  ascetic,  tragic.  The 
utmost  height  of  pure  devotion  will  not  be  too  much  to 
pay  in  atonement  and  redemption. 

In  this,  his  own  will  shall  have  its  part,  even  though  at 
the  same  time  he  says:  "Of  myself  I  am  nothing.  It  is 
the  work  of  Divine  Grace  in  me."  To  his  passionate  crj^ 
of  "Mea  culpa"  comes  the  response  from  the  community, 
"O  Lamb  of  God,  Who  taketh  away  the  sins  of  the  world, 
grant  us  Thy  peace." 

The  sinner  knows  that  his  own  task  is  an  endless  one,  in 
correspondence  with  the  consequences  of  the  guilty  deed 
itself — for  these  consequences,  unrecognized,  perhaps,  go 
on  and  on,  and  long  after  committing  of  the  deed,  when  the 
sinner  beUeves  that  his  subsequent  life  has  fully  atoned 
for  his  guilt,  in  some  hour  of  crisis  in  his  life,  they  retiu-n 
to  avenge  themselves  upon  him. 

He  knows  that  the  devotion  of  his  whole  life  "and  more 
lives  yet"  will  not  be  too  great  a  sacrifice  to  pay  to  redeem 
his  guilt. 

A.  L.  Sears. 


^  88 


J^rag^ra  for  OiohiX^ 


XLV.      FOR    THE    SPIRIT    OF    KINDNESS 

IF  from  all  Thy  good  gifts,  O  Lord,  I  may  ask  but 
one,  let  that  one  be  the  spirit  of  kindness! 

Let  others  have  fame  and  fortune  and  jewels 
and  palaces,  if  I  may  but  have  the  kindly  spirit! 
Give  greatness  and  power  to  those  that  want  them, 
but  give  to  me  Brotherly  Kindness!  Make  some- 
body else  to  be  comely  of  visage,  if  only  I  may  wear 
a  kindly  countenance! 

May  I  never  wound  the  heart  of  any  faltering 
child  of  Thine!  Make  me  to  do  the  little  unre- 
membered  acts  that  quietly  help  without  intending 
it.  Grant  me  to  bear  about  the  unconscious  radi- 
ance of  a  life  that  knows  no  grudge,  but  loves  all 
men  because  they  are  children  of  my  Father  Who 
loved  them  enough  to  send  His  Son  to  save  them. 
Amen. 

Meditation:      The  truly  kind  spirit  seeks  opportunities  of 
serving  others. 

IT  is  not  merely  the  relation  in  which  I  stand  toward 
others  whom  I  recognize  as  having  certain  claims  upon 
my  kindness;  it  is  that  which  S])rinjf8  np  wliere  the  will  of 
kindness  and  charity  is  clear  and  pure  and  constant. 

By  the  virtue  of  that  will  the  Samaritan  came  to  be  a 
neighbor  to  the  wounded  man — came  to  know  in  relation 
to  him  the  joy  of  loving  service,  the  incomparable  happi- 

^  89  Hh 


^  Pray^ra  for  Qlobay  ^h 

ness  of  doing  good.  The  teaching  of  his  example  lies  not 
merely  in  his  refraining  to  ask  what  claim  the  sufferer  had 
on  him;  we  learn  far  more  when  we  try  to  realize  the  habit 
of  mind  and  heart  which  made  him  act  as  he  did,  and 
when  we  mark  the  outcome  of  his  unquestioning  charity, 
the  relation  which  it  constituted  between  the  two  men. 
For  we  learn  that  if  we  would  find  our  place  and  work  and 
duty,  we  must  begin  by  trying  our  hearts,  by  seeing  clearly 
what  is  the  will  and  purpose,  the  temper  and  the  hope, 
that  we  are  taking  with  us  into  the  world. 

Do  we  intend,  first  of  all,  that  anyhow  it  shall  be  a 
pleasant  place  for  us — a  place  which  shall  yield  us  enjoy- 
ment, or  success,  or  praise,  or  comfort?  Do  we  know  that 
pride  or  sloth  has  a  hold  on  us  which  we  have  never  reso- 
lutely disputed  and  shaken  off?  Or,  is  the  will  of  love,  the 
desire  to  imitate  the  love  of  God  and  His  beneficence,  the 
longing  to  lighten  others'  burdens,  to  gladden  others' 
lives,  deep  and  unchecked  and  dominant  and  effectual  in 
us?  Is  there  in  us  the  charity  which  beareth,  believeth, 
hopeth,  and  endureth  all  things?  Is  there  really  notliing 
on  which  our  hearts  are  so  much  set  as  on  the  service  of 
our  fellow-men? 

Then,  quite  surely  in  the  ordinary  ways  and  occurrences 
of  life,  in  its  common  work  and  pleasures,  wheresoever 
our  course  may  lie,  we  shall  find  the  relation  of  neighbor- 
liness,  aye,  and  of  friendship  and  of  brotherhood,  spring- 
ing up;  we  shall  "come  to  be  near"  to  those  with  whom 
we  have  to  do;  we  shall  quicken  with  a  real  humanity  all 
intercourse  with  men. 

Francis  Paget. 

^  90  ►I^ 


XLVI.     FOR    A    SPIRIT    OF    LOVE    TO 
GOD   AND   MAN 

OLORD,  grant  to  me  so  to  love  Thee,  with  all 
my  heart,  with  all  my  mind,  and  with  all 
my  soul,  and  my  neighbor  for  Thy  sake,  that  the 
grace  of  charity  and  brotherly  love  may  dwell  in 
me,  and  all  envy,  harshness,  and  ill-will  may  die 
in  me;  and  fill  my  heart  with  feelings  of  love, 
kindness,  and  compassion,  so  that,  by  constantly 
rejoicing  in  the  happiness  and  good  success  of  others, 
by  sympathizing  with  them  in  their  sorrows  and 
putting  away  all  harsh  judgments  and  envious 
thoughts,  I  may  follow  Thee,  Who  art  Thyself  the 
true  and  perfect  Love.     Amen. 

Meditation:     Our  true  environment  is  God. 

RECIPROCITY  is  the  crown  of  love,  and  altlioupli  it 
may  be  absent  in  one  case  or  anotlier,  we  cannot 
use  the  word  "love,"  except  metaphoricallj'',  in  an}^  field 
which  does  not  admit  of  its  possible  reciprocation.  Any 
injunction  to  love  God,  therefore,  will  sound  abstract  and 
unreal,  till  we  remember  that  its  cause  and  condition  is 
that  "He  first  loved  us." 

God's  condescension,  not  man's  aspiration,  is  the  be- 
ginning of  religious  life.  It  is  not  we  that  work,  but  "lie 
that  worketh  in  us,  both  to  will  and  to  do  according  to 
His  good  pleasure."  But  true  as  this  is,  it  is  a  truth  which, 
at  least  in  the  present  day,  is  far  too  seldom  realized. 

i*  91  *h 


^  jPragprs  far  QlnJiag  ^ 

There  have  been  times  when  the  sense  of  the  Divine 
oppressed  men  and  led  to  superstition.  But  such  times 
are  not  ours.  The  world  of  the  present  day  beUeves,  but 
does  not  tremble.  It  thinks,  and  speaks,  and  acts,  and 
goes  about  its  business  as  if  our  race  were,  for  practical 
purposes,  self-centered  and  alone. 

Many  causes  have  contributed  to  this.  The  psycho- 
logical character  of  our  philosophy,  leading  to  agnos- 
ticism; oiu'  over-estimate  of  hberty,  with  its  attendant 
shadow,  self-assertion,  to  the  comparative  neglect  of  obedi- 
ence, humility,  reverence,  and  awe;  the  splendid  spectacle 
of  our  vast  acliievements  in  mechanism  and  science — 
have  aU  tended  to  reinforce  the  natural  pride  of  the  human 
heart,  not  less  ready  now  than  of  old  to  say,  "I  am,  and 
there  is  none  beside  me";  and  the  result  is  a  society  which 
seems  to  have  forgotten  God.  And  we  cannot  breathe  its 
atmosphere  without  being  tainted  by  its  poison. 

It  seems,  therefore,  a  very  real  effort  to  bear  constantly 
in  mind  the  fact  that  we  are  creatures  and  that  our  nearest 
relation  is  oiu"  Creator;  for  however  dependent  we  may  be 
upon  our  fellow-creatures,  we  are  far  more  essentially 
dependent  upon  Him  in  "whom  we  Uve,  and  move,  and 
have  our  being." 

If  we  tm-n,  then,  to  the  divine  share  in  the  development 
of  our  faculties,  we  shall  see  that  what  we  call  our  action 
may  be  better  described  as  God's  attraction,  and  that  we 
advance  in  exact  proportion  as  we  let  om-selves  be  led  by 
Him. 

J.  R.  Illingworth. 


92 


>h  Praycra  for  ®o6ag  ^ 


XLVII.     FOR    INSPIRATION    IN    SERVICE 

HELP  us,  O  Lord,  to  find  our  only  success  in 
selling  our  lives  as  dearly  in  service  as  our 
days  may  bring  opportunity,  and  to  regard  as  the 
only  failure  a  coming  short  of  what  Thou  dost 
expect  of  us! 

Help  us,  O  Lord,  to  live  out  on  the  open  sea  of 
Thine  all-reaching  love,  and  to  move  with  the 
currents  of  Thy  power;  to  fill  life's  sails  with  the 
fresh  winds  of  spiritual  truth  and  freedom;  to 
sail  up  and  down  time's  glorious  coast,  carrying  a 
heaven-scented  cargo  of  better  life  to  men;  to  be 
conscious  less  of  effort  and  more  of  power;  to  see 
the  needy  men  on  the  shore  and  bring  them  the 
bread  of  life;  trusting  always  that  when  the  sails 
grow  gray  and  the  spars  and  planks  begin  to  groan 
in  the  gale.  Heaven's  safe  harbor  may  welcome  in 
peace  the  Captain  of  the  Abundant  Life.     Amen. 

Meditation:    The  greatness  of  being  human. 

LET  your  life  and  j^our  thought  be  narrow,  and  your 
-^  sympathy  will  slirink  to  a  like  scale.  It  is  a  qualit}' 
which  follows  the  seeing  mind  afield,  wliich  waits  on  ex- 
perience. It  is  not  a  mere  sentiment.  It  goes  not  with 
pity  so  much  as  Avith  a  penetrative  understanding  of  other 
men's  lives  and  hopes  and  temptations.  Ignorance  of 
these  things  makes  it  worthless.     Its  best  tutors  are  ob- 

^  93  ^ 


^  jpragrra  for  ®fl&ag  >h 

servation  and  experience,  and  these  sense  only  those  who 
keep  clear  eyes  and  a  wide  field  of  vision. 

It  is  exercise  and  discipline  upon  such  a  scale,  too, 
which  strengthen,  which  for  ordinary  men  come  near  to 
creating,  that  capacity  to  reason  upon  affairs  and  to  plan 
for  action  which  we  always  reckon  upon  finding  in  every 
man  who  has  studied  to  perfect  his  native  force. 

This  new  day  in  which  we  live  cries  a  challenge  to  us. 
Steam  and  electricity  have  reduced  nations  to  neighbor- 
hoods; have  made  travel  pastime,  and  news  a  thing  for 
everybody.  Cheap  printing  has  made  knowledge  a  vul- 
gar commodity.  Our  eyes  look,  almost  without  choice, 
upon  the  very  world  itself,  and  the  word  "human"  is 
filled  with  a  new  meaning.  Our  ideals  broaden  to  suit  the 
wide  day  in  which  we  five. 

We  crave,  not  cloistered  virtue — it  is  impossible  any 
longer  to  keep  to  the  cloistej^— but  a  robust  spirit  that 
shall  take  the  air  in  the  great  world,  know  men  in  all  their 
kinds,  choose  its  way  amid  the  bustle  with  all  self-possession, 
with  wise  gemiineness,  in  calmness,  and  yet  with  the  quick 
eye  of  interest  and  the  quick  pulse  of  power.  It  is  again 
a  day  for  Shakespeare's  spirit — a  day  more  various,  more 
ardent,  more  provoking  to  valor  and  every  large  design, 
even  than  "the  spacious  times  of  great  Elizabeth,"  when 
all  the  world  seemed  new;  and  if  we  cannot  find  another 
bard  come  out  of  a  new  Warwickshire  to  hold  once  more 
the  mirror  up  to  nature,  it  will  not  be  because  the  stage 
is  not  set  for  him. 

WooDROw  Wilson. 

►J.  94  ^ 


^  Praypra  fnr   cioJiiag 


XLVIII.      FOR    A    FRUITFUL    LIFE 

OH,  for  the  faith  that  works  inwardly  by  love 
and  purifies  the  heart;  the  faith  that  works 
outwardly  by  love,  and  makes  the  evil  good,  the 
good  better! 

So  with  heart  and  hand  may  we  give  ourselves  to 
do  the  work  of  Him  Who  sent  us,  while  it  is  yet 
day;  and  while  we  joyfully  accept  the  thousand 
unasked  blessings  which  make  our  cup  run  over, 
may  we  count  among  those  blessings  all  the  drops 
of  wholesome  bitterness  that  mingle  with  the  sweet ; 
may  we  grow  strong  to  endure  hardness  as  good 
soldiers. 

May  ours  be  the  helping  hand  for  the  weak; 
may  we  be  able  to  comfort  those  who  are  in  any 
affliction,  as  we  are  comforted  of  God.  So  may  all 
our  life  be  prayer,  and  may  each  one  of  us  be  as  the 
good  tree,  divinely  nourished  at  the  root,  and  bring- 
ing forth  good  fruit  for  the  refreshment  of  mankind 
and  the  glory  of  the  Heavenly  Husbandman.     Amen. 

Meditation:    Faith  finds  God  in  the  loorld  and  the  world  in 
God. 

THE  natural  movement  of  faith  is  double,  like  the 
action  of  the  valves  of  the  heart.  Our  whole  nature 
is  ennobled  and  enhanced  as  we  try  to  follow  and  claim 
the  dimly  perceived,  perhaps,  but  deeply  believed  in,  and 

^  95  * 


JrayprH  for  (Eohn^ 


this  enrichment  takes  the  double  form  of  expansion  and 
concentration.  Let  us  never  forget  that  the  one  is  as 
necessary  as  the  other. 

If  we  read  the  writings  of  the  mystics,  we  shall  find  that 
nearly  all  the  stress  is  laid  on  concentration;  we  are  to 
draw  all  things  unto  God,  detaching  ourselves  from  all 
that  we  cannot  translate  into  a  sjinbol  of  the  divine.  Go 
not  forth,  they  say  to  us;  return  unto  thyself;  in  the  inner 
man  is  the  habitations  of  truth.  This  is  a  lesson  we  have 
all  to  learn.  The  inner  chamber  must  be  made  pure  for 
the  Divine  Guest. 

We  must  not  be  careful  about  many  things;  but  one 
thing  is  needful.  Prayer  and  meditation  will  teach  us 
much  we  cannot  learn  in  any  other  way.  If  we  cannot 
find  God,  it  is  perhaps  because  He  is  at  home,  while  we 
are  abroad;  that  He  is  ready  for  us,  wliile  we  are  too  busy 
to  attend  to  Him. 

Yes,  this  is  haK  the  truth,  but  only  half.  In  Jacob's 
vision,  which  you  will  remember  is  referred  to  by  our 
Lord  in  St.  John,  the  angels  were  seen,  not  only  climbing 
up  the  ladder,  but  also  going  down  it.  Now,  what  does 
tliis  mean?  It  means  that  we  are  not  to  rim  away  from 
life  even  to  find  God,  but  that  we  are  to  come  back  with 
our  treasure  as  soon  as  we  have  found  it.  We  have  suc- 
ceeded, perhaps,  in  finding  God  in  the  world;  then  let  us 
try  to  find  the  world  in  God. 

W.  R.  Inge. 


^  96 


^  Prayera  fur  (UnJiay  >i* 

XLIX.     FOR   A    SENSE    OF    THE    DIVINE 
PRESENCE 

FATHER,  Whose  life  is  within  me  and  Whose 
love  is  ever  about  me,  make  Thy  life  mani- 
fest in  my  life  this  day,  as  with  gladness  of  heart, 
without  haste  or  confusion  of  thought,  I  go  about 
my  daily  tasks,  conscious  of  ability  to  meet  every 
rightful  demand,  seeing  the  larger  meaning  of  little 
things  and  finding  beauty  everywhere. 

In  the  sense  of  Thy  presence  may  I  move  through 
the  hours,  breathing  the  atmosphere  of  love,  and 
seeking  by  love,  rather  than  by  anxious  striving,  to 
quicken  and  bless  the  lives  of  others.  Knowing 
that  I  am  a  laborer  together  with  Thee,  may  I  live 
above  all  the  influences  that  depress  and  discourage, 
and  come  into  that  assurance  of  faith  which  is 
itself  the  victory  that  overcometh  the  world. 

And  now  I  would  enter  into  the  secret  place  of 
Thy  presence,  that,  hidden  in  Thee,  my  soul  may 
be  filled  with  a  sense  of  Thy  sheltering  care  and  all 
my  energies  quickened  into  newness  of  life.     Amen. 

Meditation:     The  end  of  human  evolution  is  companionship 
with  God. 

AS  we  review  the  overpowering  spectacle  of  the  evo- 
.  lution  of  countless  ages,  the  slow  development  of 
new  forms  and  their  apparent  culmination  in  man,  we  are 
stupefied  at  the  immensity  of  it  all. 

•^  97  ^ 


^  Prag^rs  for  SoJiag  ►!< 

Perhaps  nothing  is  more  astounding  than  that  man — 
who  so  plainly  is  the  outgrowth  of  lower  forms,  and  whose 
organism  bears  the  traces  of  the  journey  which  it  has 
traveled — suddenly  turns  his  back  on  his  past  and  announces 
to  the  rest  of  creation,  "I  am  like  you;  you  have  helped  to 
make  me;  but  I  am  not  of  you.  We  are  akin,  but  you 
are  not  my  creator.  Your  society  is  not  enough;  I  must 
talk  with  my  God." 

If  we  were  watching  the  process  of  evolution  from  the 
outside,  perhaps  nothing  would  astonish  us  more  than  this. 
Where  did  man  get  this  idea?  How  does  he  dare  to  make 
such  an  assertion,  which  his  more  humble  forebears  did 
not  dream  of?  It  would  almost  seem  as  if  this  were  the 
moment  for  which  God  had  been  waiting.  What  could 
be  a  more  valid  reason  for  the  long  work  of  making  a  world 
of  men,  than  that  finally  the  world  should  turn  and  assert 
its  own  divinity  and  provide  not  a  problem  alone,  but  a 
companion? 

Is  tliis  antlu-opomorphic?  It  is,  and  what  of  it?  Anj^ 
divine  motive  must  be  of  the  same  order  as  a  human 
motive  to  be  in  the  faintest  degree  comprehensible  to  us, 
and  therefore  we  must  fall  into  either  anthropomorphism  or 
agnosticism.  There  is  no  alternative,  and  it  is  as  much 
an  unproved  creed  to  assert  that  God's  motives  cannot 
be  fathomed,  as  to  affirm  that  they  can. 

E.  H.  Rowland, 


98 


^  jPrauera  for  (lin&ag  ^ 

L.      FOR    SELF-CONTROL 

LORD,  grant  me  self-control!  Thou  sayest  to 
-/  me,  as  to  Thy  servant  of  old,  "Walk  before 
me  and  be  thou  perfect."  But  how  can  I  thus  walk 
before  Thee,  Thou  Heart-searching  God,  how  avoid 
the  hasty  word,  the  irritated  spirit,  unless  Thou 
help  me  every  moment?  I  want  steadiness  and 
quietness  of  heart,  no  matter  how  9(udden  the  sur- 
prise or  how  great  the  strain. 

Oh,  make  good  to  me  Thy  promise  that  Thou 
wilt  keep  him  in  perfect  peace  whose  mind  is  stayed 
on  Thee.  Nothing  can  take  Thee  by  surprise, 
nothing  outweary  Thee.  So  help  me  this  moment, 
and  always,  to  put  the  reins  of  my  life  over  into 
Thy  hands.  Let  it  be  no  longer  I,  but  Christ  that 
liveth  in  me.     Amen. 

Meditation:      Character  and  action  are  both  essential  Id  h 
harrnnnious  life. 

I  RECALL  what  Jesus  said,  "You  must  be  born  again" 
— that  is  His  inexorable  demand  for  the  background  of 
character.  "If  ye  love  me,  keep  my  commandments" — 
that  is  His  absolute  insistence  on  the  foreground  of  action. 
And  the  power  of  both  of  them — the  power  by  wliich  they 
both  unite  into  one  life — lies  in  the  personal  love  and 
service  of  Himself. 

This  is  the  largest  and  richest  education  of  a  Imnian 

•i<  99  Hh 


PraQ^ra  for  ihahn^ 


nature — not  an  instruction,  not  a  commandment,  but  a 
Friend.  It  is  not  God's  truth,  it  is  not  God's  law — it  is 
God  that  is  the  salvation  of  the  world.  It  is  not  Chris- 
tianity, it  is  not  the  Christian  religion,  it  is  Christ  who  has 
done  for  us,  who  is  doing  for  us  every  day,  that  which  our 
souls  require. 

What  has  He  done  for  you,  mj'  friend?  First,  He  has 
made  you  a  new  creature  in  Himself.  He  has  given  you 
a  new  character;  and  then  He  has  guided  you  and  ruled 
you,  making  you  do  new,  good,  holy  actions  in  obedience 
to  Him.    Not  two  blessings,  not  two  salvations — only  one! 

This  is  His  promise  to  the  soul  which  He  in\'ites,  "Come, 
give  yoiirself  to  me  and  you  shall  be  new  and  do  new  tilings; 
you  shall  have  opened  within  you  the  fuUness  of  new  ad- 
mirations, new  judgments,  new  standards,  new  thoughts 
— everything  which  makes  new  character;  and  there  shall 
be  new  power  for  the  daily  task,  new  clearness,  new  skill 
in  the  things  wMch  every  day  brings  to  be  done."  The 
background  and  the  foreground!  "This  ought  ye  to  have 
done  and  not  to  leave  the  other  undone" — the  full,  har- 
monious picture  of  a  life! 

Phillips  Brooks. 


100 


LI.     FOR   A  QUIET    HEART 

GRANT  unto  us,  Almighty  God,  the  peace  that 
passeth  understanding,  that  we,  amid  the 
storms  and  troubles  of  this  our  life,  may  rest  in 
Thee,  knowing  that  all  things  are  in  Thee,  not 
beneath  Thine  eye  only,  but  under  Thy  care, 
*  governed  by  Thy  will,  guarded  by  Thy  love,  so 
that  with  a  quiet  heart  we  may  see  the  storms  of 
life,  the  cloud  and  the  thick  darkness,  ever  re- 
joicing to  know  that  the  darkness  and  the  light  are 
both  alike  to  Thee. 

Guide,  guard,  and  govern  us  even  to  the  end, 
that  none  of  us  may  fail  to  lay  hold  upon  the  im- 
mortal life;  through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord.    Amen. 

Meditation:    Faith  can  cope  with  every  fear. 

IT  is  a  pathetic  reflection  that  all  around  us,  even  in 
our  o\vn  homes  and  close  to  our  hearts,  there  are  those 
who  lead  their  lives  under  the  burden  of  an  unspoken  fear. 

These  unhappy  souls  learn  to  keep  silence,  because  when 
they  have  spoken  they  have  been  met  only  with  ridicule 
or  misunderstanding;  and  the  very  suppression  of  their 
misery  leads  to  its  intensification  and  fixes  it  more  firmly 
in  the  subconscious.  Much  may  be  done  b}-^  analyzing 
the  fear,  by  laying  bare  its  hidden  roots,  by  seeing  how 
it  took  origin  in  the  mind. 

We  fear  the  unknown;    but  half  our  fear  has  vanished 

^  101  ^ 


^  Pragfra  for  Q^ah^  *h 

when  the  unknown  has  been  forced  to  give  up  its  secret. 
But  if  a  genuinely  regenerative  force  is  to  enter  the  Hfe 
and  make  peace  and  poise  a  permanent  possession,  some- 
thing more  is  needed.  Faith  in  the  goodness  of  life,  in  the 
creative  spirit  of  the  universe,  in  the  honor  of  men  and  in 
the  virtue  of  women,  in  the  powers  of  the  human  soul, 
and,  if  by  grace  of  Heaven  we  can  attain  to  it,  faith  in  a 
destiny  rich  in  boimdless  possibihty,  is  the  sovereign  cure 
for  tliis  saddest  distemper  of  the  soul.  « 

No  crisis  is  too  great,  no  agony  is  too  poignant,  no  up- 
heaval of  foundations  of  existence  too  overwhelming  for 
the  constraining,  steadying  and  uplifting  energies  of  a 
moral  trust. 

One  sometimes  imagines  oneself  in  a  situation  of  terrible 
strain  and  stress,  amid  the  terrors  of  shipwreck,  or  in  the 
inferno  of  the  modern  battle-field,  where  the  relentless 
forces  of  natiu-e  or  the  cruel  engines  of  human  ingenuity 
make  havoc  of  youth,  affection,  beauty,  the  rich  promise 
of  the  futm'e  as  well  as  the  garnered  harvests  of  the  past, 
and  the  doubt  arises  unbidden — What  would  faith  m  the 
mvisible  order  of  reahties  avail  against  the  overpowering 
might  of  the  immediate  present? 

It  suffices  us  to  reply  that  faith  is  not  merely  for  the  sun- 
shine, but  also  for  the  darkness;  not  only  for  the  quiet 
levels  of  om*  existence,  but  also  for  the  wrack  of  tempest 
and  the  last  delirium  of  despair. 

Samuel  McComb. 


^  102 


J^ragrra  fnr  (Uobag 


LII.     FOR    A    GENEROUS    SPIRIT 

OTHOU  Who  hast  never  left  Thyself  without 
a  witness  in  any  land,  let  me  not  narrow  the 
range  of  Thy  Spirit!  Let  me  not  say  that  Thy 
voice  can  only  reach  the  members  of  the  Church 
Visible! 

I  have  seen  gifted  souls,  inspired  souls,  who  have 
not  been  numbered  with  Thy  congregation;  I  have 
heard  strains  of  Divine  melody  which  have  not  come 
from  Thy  sanctuary;    and  I  have  wondered. 

Let  me  wonder  no  more!  Thou  art  larger  than 
Thy  tabernacle,  Thou  art  wider  than  Thine  altar. 
Thou  travelest  on  the  wings  of  the  morning.  In 
the  uttermost  parts  of  the  sea  I  find  Thee.  If  I 
say  of  a  spot,  "Surely  here  the  darkness  will  cover 
me!"  behind  the  curtain  I  meet  Thee! 

Do  not  let  me  call  my  brother  an  infidel  because 
he  joins  not  Thine  outward  Church;  Thy  Church 
can  join  him!  Thou  hast  recognized  hundreds  on 
the  road  to  Emmaus  who  have  not  recognized  Thee. 
Thou  hast  seen  Nathanaels  under  the  fig-tree  who 
never  knew  Thou  wert  passing  by.  Increase  my 
charity,  O  God!    Amen. 


103 


^  Jragrra  for  ®nbag  ^ 

Meditation:    A  vision  of  the  future  wherein  all  peoples  are 
seen  contributing  to  the  common  welfare  of  the  race. 

THE  vision  that  floats  before  me  is  a  vast  synthesis 
of  all  the  experience  which  the  human  race  has  ever 
had  or  ever  will  have. 

First,  we  must  have  full  trust  in  reason  to  verify  and  de- 
fine the  facts  of  that  experience.  The  agnostic  is  out  of  court, 
whether  he  calls  himself  a  Cliristian  or  something  else.  We 
shall  want  everything  that  philosophy  can  tell  us  of  the  work- 
ing of  the  divine  within  us,  the  whole  teaching  of  science  about 
its  working  in  the  world,  the  most  searching  criticism  to  un- 
ravel its  course  in  history;  and  we  shall  need  the  highest  of 
culture  to  throw  over  all  divine  charm  of  grace  and  beauty. 

But  this  is  not  enough:  no  man  liveth  to  himself,  and 
no  man  dieth  to  himself.  No  one  man  bom  in  sin  can  reach 
the  many-sided  fullness  of  truth.  We  need  a  deeper  social 
science  to  set  our  relations  to  one  another  in  a  fuller  hght 
of  truth,  and  to  shape  our  society  more  after  the  dim  out- 
line of  that  kingdom  of  God  which  every  theist  must  be- 
heve  in,  though  he  may  not  call  it  by  a  Christian  name. 

But  this  again  is  not  enough.  As  no  one  man  can  cover 
the  divine  expanse  of  truth,  so  neither  can  any  one  nation. 
After  all  the  advances  we  boast  of  in  our  civilization,  we 
have  uiherited  by  far  the  largest  part  of  it  from  the  past. 
History  was  old  when  the  Pyramids  were  built,  Greece 
and  Israel  already  stand  on  the  platform  of  an  ancient 
civilization,  and  every  generation  has  added  to  the  august 
tradition  which  is  now  the  common  heritage  of  cultured 
nations.  G.  M.  Gwatkin. 

^  104  ^ 


•^  Prag^ra  for  ©oiag  ^ 

LIU.      FOR    THE    INFLUENCE    OF    THE 
DIVINE    SPIRIT 

Breathe  on  me,  Breath  of  God, 

Till  I  am  wholly  Thine; 
Till  all  this  earthly  part  of  me 

Glows  with  Thy  fire  divine. 

Breathe  on  me,  Breath  of  God; 

Fill  me  with  life  anew, 
That  I  may  love  what  Thou  dost  love 

And  do  what  Thou  wouldst  do. 

Breathe  on  me.  Breath  of  God, 

Until  my  heart  is  pure; 
Until  with  Thee  I  will  one  will. 

To  do  and  to  endure. 

Breathe  on  me.  Breath  of  God, 

So  shall  I  never  die. 
But  live  with  Thee  the  perfect  life 

Of  Thine  Eternity.     Amen. 

Meditation:  Evil  desire  to  be  replaced  by  the  Spirit  of  Holiness. 

CHRIST  demanded  virtue  of  the  enthusiastic  kind; 
He  prohibited  evil  desires  as  well  as  wrong  acts. 
Accordingly,  it  is  one  of  the  most  remarkable  features  of 
His  moral  teaching  that  He  does  not  command  us  to  regu- 

>h  105  ^ 


Pragpra  for  ®oJiay 


late  or  control  our  unlawful  desires,  but  pronounces  it 
unlawful  to  have  such  desires  at  all. 

This  higher  form  of  goodness,  though,  of  course,  it 
had  existed  among  the  heathen  nations,  yet  had  never 
among  them  been  sufficiently  distinguished  from  the  lower 
to  receive  a  separate  name.  The  earliest  Christians,  like 
the  Christians  of  later  times,  felt  a  natural  repugnance  to 
describe  the  ardent,  enthusiastic  goodness  at  which  they 
akned  by  the  name  of  virtue. 

This  name  suited  exactly  the  kind  of  goodness  which 
Clirist  expressly  commanded  them  to  rise  above.  They 
therefore  adopted  another,  regarding  the  ardor  they  felt 
as  an  express  insijiration  or  spiritual  presence  of  God  within 
them,  borrowed  from  the  language  of  religious  worship  a 
word  for  which  our  equivalent  is  "holy";  and  this  inspiring 
power  they  consistently  called  the  Spirit  of  HoUness,  or 
the  Holy  Spirit. 

Accordingly,  while  a  virtuous  man  is  one  who  controls 
and  coerces  the  anarchic  passions  within  him  so  as  to  con- 
form his  actions  to  law,  a  holy  man  is  one  in  whom  a  pas- 
sionate enthusiasm  absorbs  and  annuls  the  anarchic  pas- 
sions altogether,  so  that  no  internal  struggle  takes  place, 
and  the  lawful  action  is  that  which  presents  itself  first, 
and  seems  the  one  most  natural  and  most  easy  to  be  done. 

Sir  John  Seeley. 


106 


Prayprfl  for  anhay 


LIV.     FOR    PATIENCE 

TEACH  me  Thy  patience,  O  my  God,  for  I  am 
but  a  creature  of  a  day  and  know  not  how 
to  wait.  Give  me  the  breath,  the  clear  air,  of  the 
eternal  years  in  which  Thou  workest  quietly  to 
bring  Thy  plans  to  fruition.  Not  in  listless  quiet 
would  I  wait,  but  with  forward-looking  faith  which 
shall  enable  me  to  sing  for  joy  of  heart. 

Build  in  my  soul  great  expectations,  high  im- 
aginings of  love's  triumph  and  the  coming  glory  of 
Thy  righteous  kingdom,  large  thoughts  of  the  value 
of  the  souls  of  men  for  whom  Christ  died.  When 
my  troubles  come,  afford  me  aid,  that  I  may  not 
be  shaken,  but  stand  fast.  Enable  me  to  finish 
the  work  which  Thou  hast  given  me  to  do.     Amen. 

Meditation;   True  patience  is  the  endurance  of  ill  in  a  spirit 
of  filial  trust  in  God. 

THE  virtue  of  patience  is  not  sullen  despair  or  the  en- 
forced but  untrustful  and  unloving  acceptance  of 
evils  which  we  cannot  avoid,  or  from  which,  if  they  have 
once  seized  upon  us,  we  cannot  shake  ourselves  free. 

It  is  true  that  not  only  the  appearance,  but  the  reality 
of  a  virtuous  patience,  is  largely  a  matter  of  temperament 
and  of  conditions  of  the  nervous  system.  But  the  attitude 
which  the  soul  has  toward  the  unavoidable  ills  of  life, 
when  it  is  simply  yielding  to  the  inevitable  in  an  openly 

>b  107  * 


3Prag?rB  for  Qlnbag 


quiet  manner,  because  of  the  uselessness  of  struggle  and 
debate  with  a  nature  that  cares  not,  and  heeds  not,  what 
becomes  of  the  individual,  is  a  very  different  attitude  from 
that  filial  spirit  of  endurance  which  provides  its  justifica- 
tion in  the  faith  that  all  is  subject  to  a  righteous  and  loving 
will. 

The  man  who  sets  his  teeth  and  makes  no  sign,  when  a 
restless  and  blind  fate  has  seized  him,  may  indeed  display 
the  qualities  of  a  moral  hero;  but  he  cannot  well  exercise 
the  gracious  virtues  of  patience  in  the  spirit  of  a  sincere 
piety. 

George  T.  Ladd. 


>h  108 


Iraupra  fnr  aoiJao 


LV.     FOR   THE   DIVINE   INDWELLING 

OLORD,  of  Thy  tender  love,  prepare  Thou 
Thyself  a  place  for  Thyself  in  my  heart. 
Empty  my  heart  of  every  feeling,  thought,  emotion, 
desire,  purpose,  anxiety,  fear,  which  may  interfere 
with  Thy  love.  Open  my  whole  heart  to  receive 
Thee;  let  nothing  shut  Thee  out,  nothing  be  shut 
to  Thee. 

Thou  alone  canst  fit  my  heart  for  Thyself: 
cleanse  it  wholly  by  Thy  Spirit,  that  it  may  wholly 
love  Thee;  be  wholly  filled  with  Thee;  wholly 
penetrated,  enlightened,  warmed,  by  Thee;  that 
Thou  mayest  dwell  in  it  forever,  and  it  may  love 
Thee  with  Thine  own  love  in  it  everlastingly.  Amen. 

Meditation:    All  true  love  is  the  love  of  God. 

THOU  lovest  God?  Then  thou  lovest  all  that  is  good; 
for  God  is  good,  and  from  Him  all  good  things  come. 
But  what  is  good?  All  is  good  except  sin ;  for  it  is  WTitten, 
"God  saw  everything  that  He  had  made,  and,  behold,  it 
was  very  good."  Therefore,  if  thou  lovest  God,  thou  must 
love  all  things,  for  all  things  are  of  Him,  and  by  Him, 
and  through  Him ;  and  in  Him  all  live,  and  move,  and  have 
their  being.  Then  thou  wilt  truly  love  God.  Thou  ^\ilt 
be  content  with  God;  and  so  thy  love  will  cast  out  fear. 
Thou  wilt  trust  God;  thou  wilt  have  the  mind  of  God; 
thou  wilt  be  satisfied  with  God's  working,  from  tlic  rise 

^  109  ^ 


>h  Prayers  for  (Unhag  ^ 

and  fall  of  great  nations  to  the  life  and  death  of  the  smallest 
gnat  which  dances  in  the  sun;  thou  wilt  say  forever,  and 
concerning  all  things,  I  know  in  whom  I  have  believed. 
It  is  the  good  Lord;    let  Him  do  what  seemeth  Him  good. 

Again;  Thou  lovest  thy  neighbor;  thou  lovest  wife 
and  child;  thou  lovest  thy  friends;  thou  lovest  or  wishest 
to  love  all  men,  and  to  do  them  good.  Then  thou  lovest 
God.  For  what  is  it  that  thou  lovest  in  thy  neighbor? 
Not  that  which  is  bad  in  him?  No,  but  that  which  is 
good. 

Thou  lovest  him  for  his  kindliness,  his  honesty,  his 
helpfulness — for  some  quality  in  him.  But  from  whom  does 
that  good  come  save  from  Christ  and  from  the  Spirit  of 
Christ,  from  whom  alone  come  all  good  gifts?  Yes,  if  you 
will  receive  it — when  we  love  oiu"  neighbors,  it  is  God  in 
them,  Christ  in  them,  whom  we  love — Christ  in  them,  the 
hope  of  glory. 

Charles  Kingsley. 


>i<  110 


q*  Pratrrra  fnr  eo^ag  ^ 

LVI.     FOR   DEVOTION   TO   THE    KINGDOM 
OF    GOD 

O  FATHER,  calm  the  turbulence  of  my  pas- 
sions; quiet  the  throbbings  of  my  hopes; 
repress  the  waywardness  of  my  will ;  direct  the  out- 
goings of  my  affections;  and  sanctify  the  changes 
of  my  lot.  Be  Thou  all  in  all  to  me  and  may  all 
things  earthly,  while  I  bend  them  to  my  growth  in 
grace,  dwell  lightly  in  my  heart,  so  that  I  may  readily, 
or  even  joyfully,  give  up  whatever  Thou  dost  ask 
for. 

May  I  seek  first  Thy  kingdom  and  righteousness, 
resting  assured  that  then  all  things  needful  shall  be 
added  unto  me.  Father,  pardon  my  past  ingratitude 
and  disobedience,  and  purify  me,  whether  by  Thy 
gentler  or  Thy  sterner  dealings,  till  I  have  done 
Thy  will  on  earth  and  Thou  removest  me  to  Thine 
own  presence  with  the  redeemed  in  heaven.    Amen. 

Meditation:    A  steady  progress  in  the  spiritual  life  is  to  be 
coveted  earnestly. 

I  WILL  not  deny  that,  up  to  the  last  moment,  a  human 
soul  may  repent  and  break  away  from  its  past;  or 
that  wliile  there  is  life  there  is  hope,  even  for  the  worst. 
No  man  can  altogether  e;xtinguish  the  craving  for  good 
that  is  bound  up  with  his  spiritual  nature;  and  tlie  revo- 
lutions that  have  taken  place  in  the  cliaracter  of  those 

*i^  111  ^ 


*h  Pra^r^ra  for  ®obag  ^ 

who  seemed  the  most  degraded  of  men  are  such  that  no 
child  of  Adam  and  of  God  need  be  despaired  of.  But  one 
thing  is  certain — that  the  price  the  individual  has  to  pay 
for  such  change  steadily  grows  with  the  years,  like  the 
price  of  the  Sibylline  books;  and  that  even  when  it  is  paid, 
the  result  cannot  be  quite  the  same — the  number  of  the 
books  has  diminished. 

Men  rise  on  stepping-stones  of  their  dead  selves  to 
higher  things,  but  if  the  old  self  has  been  allowed  to  grow 
mature  and  strong,  they  will  not  cease  to  be  haunted 
by  the  ghosts  of  their  former  existence.  Their  hves  will 
be  disturbed  by  conflicts  with  their  old  habits  and  saddened 
by  the  consciousness  of  a  still  divided  will. 

They  cannot  have  that  security  and  peace,  that  joy  and 
harmony  with  themselves,  which  is  given  to  those  whose 
life  has  been — on  the  whole,  and  in  spite  of  the  error  and 
failure  that  comes  even  to  the  best — a  steady  progress 
from  less  to  more,  from  an  honest  and  wholesome  boyhood 
to  a  generous  and  aspiring  youth,  and  from  that  to  a  strong 
and  resolute  manhood  and  a  serene  and  beautiful  old  age. 
Of  such  only  is  it  true  that  their  "path  is  as  a  shining 
light  that  shineth  more  and  more  unto  the  perfect  day." 

Edward  Cairo. 


>h  112  ^ 


Pragfrs  far  (Luiiay 


LVII.     FOR    SPIRITUAL    REFRESHMENT 

OGOD,  help  me  to  lift  my  thoughts,  if  it  be 
but  a  little  way  out  of  the  dust  and  smoke  of 
life's  endless  battle.  Let  me  forget  for  an  hour  my 
trivial  cares  and  paltry  hopes,  and  see  all  things, 
even  the  love  and  joy  of  this  world,  in  the  light  of 
Thine  eternal  calm. 

Father,  my  whole  existence  is  unworthy  and  im- 
perfect. I  am  only  half  true  to  the  law  Thou  hast 
graven  on  my  heart,  half  grateful  or  faithful  to 
Thee,  my  Lord.  As  I  grow  older  I  cease  to  fall  into 
the  sins  which  beset  me  in  youth,  for  they  cease  to 
tempt  me;  but  I  grow  more  engrossed  with  earthly 
interests,  and  less  moved  by  the  holy  ambition  to 
grow  perfect  as  Thou,  my  Father,  art  perfect. 

Even  such  repentance  as  I  feel  for  my  errors  and 
shortcomings  is  cold  and  dull.  Change  this  twilight 
of  indifference  into  a  fervent  yearning  for  what  is 
good  and  noble  and  holy,  and  bitter  loathing  for 
all  things  false  and  selfish  and  vile.     Amen. 

Meditation:    Self-condemnation  is  the  mtness  to  the  presence 
of  the  ideal. 

IT  is  the  consciousness  that  the  ideal  is  the  real  which 
explains  the  fact  of  contrition.  To  become  morally 
awakened  is  to  become  conscious  of  the  vanity  and  nothing- 
ness of  the  past  life,  as  confronted  with  the  new  ideal  ini- 

^  113  ^ 


^  fragfra  for  (Eohtx^  ^i* 

plied  in  it.  The  past  life  is  something  to  be  cast  aside  as 
false  show,  just  because  the  self  that  experienced  it  was  not 
reahzed  in  it. 

It  is  for  this  reason  that  the  moral  agent  sets  himself 
against  it  and  desires  to  annihilate  all  its  claims  upon  him 
by  undergoing  its  punishment,  and  drinking  to  the  dregs 
its  cup  of  bitterness.  Thus  his  true  life  Ues  in  the  realiza- 
tion of  his  ideal,  and  his  advance  toward  it  is  his  coming 
to  himself.  Only  in  attaining  to  it  does  he  attain  reaUty, 
and  the  only  realization  possible  for  him  in  the  present 
is  just  the  consciousness  of  the  potency  of  the  ideal. 

To  him  to  live  is  to  realize  his  ideal.  It  is  a  power  that 
irks,  till  it  finds  expression  in  moral  habits  that  accord 
with  its  nature — that  is,  till  the  spirit  has,  out  of  its  en- 
vironment, created  a  body  adequate  to  itself. 

The  condemnation  of  self,  which  characterizes  all  moral 
life  and  is  the  condition  of  moral  progress,  must  not,  there- 
fore, be  regarded  as  a  complete  truth.  For  the  very  con- 
demnation implies  the  actual  presence  of  something  better. 
Both  of  the  tenns — the  criterion  and  the  fact  which  is 
condemned  by  it — ^fall  within  the  same  individual  life. 
Man  cannot,  therefore,  without  injustice,  condenm  him- 
self in  all  that  he  is;  for  the  condemnation  is  itself  a  witness 
to  the  activity  of  that  good  of  which  he  despairs. 

Henry  Jones. 


^  114 


Jraiipra  fur  Qlofiay 


LVIII.      FOR  THE  GRACES  OF  PENITENCE 
AND   COURAGE 

LORD,  enlighten  us  to  see  the  beam  that  is  in 
J  our  own  eye,  and  blind  us  to  the  mote  that 
is  in  our  brother's.  Let  us  feel  our  offenses  with 
our  hands,  make  them  great  and  bright  before  us 
like  the  sun,  make  us  eat  them  and  drink  them  for 
our  diet.  Blind  us  to  the  offenses  of  our  beloved, 
cleanse  them  from  our  memories,  take  them  out 
of  our  mouths  forever. 

Let  all  here  before  Thee  carry  and  measure  with 
the  false  balances  of  love,  and  be  in  their  own  eyes 
and  in  all  conjunctures  the  most  guilty.  Help  us 
at  the  same  time  with  the  grace  of  courage,  that 
we  be  none  of  us  cast  down  when  we  sit  lamenting 
amid  the  ruins  of  our  happiness  or  our  integrity; 
touch  us  with  fire  from  the  altar,  that  we  may  be 
up  and  doing  to  rebuild  our  city.     Amen. 

Meditation:    An  unforgiving  spirit  inhibits  the  love  of  Cod. 

WHEN  a  man  forgives  another  man  who  has  sinned 
against  him,  lie  docs  not  blot  the  man's  sin  out  of 
existence,  he  docs  not  make  it  as  thougli  it  had  never  been. 
No;  but  he  overlooks  the  sin  and  tries  to  forget  it  and  goes 
on  loving  the  sinner  in  spite  of  it.  And  this  is  wliat  f!od 
does  to  us. 

He  loves  us  in  spite  of  our  sins,  ami  will  ilraw  us  to 

^  115  ^ 


^  Prapra  for  ©n&ag  ►j^ 

Himself  in  disregard  of  them,  so  long  as  we  are  capable  of 
loving  our  feUow-men  and  of  showing  our  love  by  forgiving 
them  their  sins  against  us.  If  we  retain  our  power  of  loving 
we  shall  be  able  to  outgrow  and  Uve  down  our  sins,  we  shall 
be  able  to  prove  that  our  sins  were  no  sins,  in  that  they  did 
us  no  lasting  moral  harm. 

We  shall  also  be  able,  since  love  is  the  soul's  response 
to  love,  to  open  our  hearts  to  the  sunshine  of  God's  presence. 

The  intimate,  the  vital  connection  which  exists  in  Clirist's 
mind  between  God  forgiving  man  his  trespasses  and  man 
forgiving  his  fellow-men  makes  it  clear  what  Christ  finally 
meant  by  the  sin  for  which  there  is  no  forgiveness.  That 
sin  is  hatred,  the  sin  of  sins  against  man,  the  sin  of  sins 
against  the  Holy  Spirit  of  God. 

For  God  is  ever  drawing  us  to  Himself  by  the  magnetic 
might  of  love;  and  the  hatred  which  makes  a  man  inca- 
pable of  loving  his  brother  and  forgiving  him  his  trespasses 
makes  him  also  incapable  of  yielding  to  the  attractive 
force  of  God's  love,  and  of  receiving  at  His  hands  that 
boon  of  forgiveness  which  is  but  another  name  for  the 
patience  and  the  long-suffering  of  love. 

Anon. 


^  116 


Prayrra  for  ©nliiag 


LIX.      FOR    FELLOWSHIP    WITH    GOD    IN 
LOVE   AND   SERVICE 

OMY  KING  and  my  loving  Friend,  I  come  to 
Thee  to  tell  Thee  that  I  love  Thee.  Unworthy 
though  I  am,  full  of  doubts  and  fears,  with  thoughts 
unsanctified  and  work  poorly  done,  yet  I  trust  Thee 
and  Thy  redeeming  love.  Thou  alone  canst  make 
me  worthy,  and  I  come  just  as  I  am.  I  can  find 
purity  and  peace  only  at  Thy  feet.  I  can  see  light 
only  as  I  stand  in  the  light  of  Thy  countenance. 
And  I  thank  Thee  that  Thou  art  willing  and  waiting 
to  receive  me,  and  that  Thou  art  ready  to  accept 
the  love  of  my  poor  heart. 

Take  my  hand  in  Thine  and  lead  me  where  Thou 
wilt.  The  way  may  be  long  and  the  shadows  deep, 
but  I  cannot  be  afraid  when  Thou  art  near.  Thou 
knowest  my  need  of  Thee.  O  Lord,  Thou  callest 
me  to  follow  Thee.  Can  it  be  that  Thou  needest 
me,  that  Thou,  my  perfect  Friend,  dost  ask  my 
aid  in  bringing  the  world  to  Thee?  May  I  share  in 
the  divine  service  of  redemption? 

May  I  lead  men  to  Thee  and  fight  in  Thy  battle 
for  righteousness?  My  Lord,  I  am  unworthy  of 
such  an  honor.  But  at  Thy  call  I  come.  All  I 
am  and  all  I  have  is  Thine.  There  is  no  place  for 
me  save  in  Thy  service.  Only  with  Thee  can  I  find 
strength  and  know  the  meaning  of  my  life.  Fill 
me  with  joy  as  I  live  and  toil  to  bring  Thy  kingdom. 

^  117  *i* 


^  3Prag?ra  for  alnJiag  >i^ 

And  when  Thou  seest  best  let  me  serve"  Thee  in 
the  better  world.    Amen  and  Amen. 


Meditation:   Power  and  life  are  the  marks  of  a  genuine  faith. 

AS  one  reads  the  Gospels  there  meet  him  two  great 
.  words  which  announce  the  nature  of  the  teaching, 
as  recurring  motifs  reiterate  a  central  theme.  The  first  is 
the  word  Power;   the  second  is  the  word  Life. 

The  first  is  the  characteristic  word  of  the  Synoptic 
Gospels:  "The  multitudes  glorified  God  which  had  given 
such  power  unto  men";  "His  word  was  with  power"; 
"Until  ye  be  endued  with  power  from  on  high";  "Till 
they  have  seen  the  kingdom  of  God  come  with  power." 
The  second  is  the  word  of  the  Fourth  Gospel:  "I  am  the 
bread  of  life";  "In  him  was  life,  and  the  life  was  the  light 
of  men";  "He  that  believeth  not  the  Son  shall  not  see  life"; 
"Ye  will  not  come  to  me  that  ye  might  have  hfe";  "The 
words  that  I  speak  unto  you,  they  are  spirit  and  they  are 
life";  "I  am  come  that  they  might  have  Hfe." 

Power  and  Life  are,  however,  words,  not  of  opinion  or 
definition,  but  of  expansion,  vitality,  momentum,  gi'owth. 
They  are  symbols  of  a  dynamic  faith.  Power  is  generated 
to  be  appUed.  Life  is  given  to  be  transmitted.  To  restrict 
power  is  to  waste  it;  to  save  hfe  is  to  lose  it.  The  Christian 
life  is  not  a  tiling  to  keep,  but  a  thing  to  give;  not  an 
ancient  tradition,  but  a  new  creation;  not  a  stopping- 
place,  but  a  way. 

Francis  G.  Peabody. 

*h  118  ^ 


Pragpra  for  cTobag  *h 


LX.     FOR    A    TRUE    VISION    OF    LIFE 

GREAT  is  Thy  name,  O  God,  and  greatly  to 
be  praised.  In  Thee  all  my  discordant  notes 
rise  into  perfect  harmony.  It  is  good  for  me  to 
think  of  the  wonder  of  Thy  being.  Thou  art  most 
silent,  yet  most  strong;  unchangeable,  yet  ever 
changing;  ever  working,  yet  ever  at  rest,  support- 
ing, nourishing,  maturing  all  things. 

O  Thou  Eternal  Spirit,  who  hast  set  my  troubled 
years  in  the  heart  of  Thy  eternity,  lift  me  above 
the  power  and  evils  of  the  passing  time,  that  under 
the  shadow  of  Thy  wings  I  may  take  courage  and 
be  glad.  I  remember  with  sadness  my  want  of 
faith  in  Thee.  What  might  have  been  a  garden  I 
have  turned  into  a  desert  by  my  wilfulness  and  sin. 

This  beautiful  life  which  Thou  hast  given  me 
I  have  wasted  in  futile  worries  and  vain  regrets 
and  empty  fears.  Instead  of  opening  my  eyes  to 
the  joy  of  life,  the  joy  that  shines  in  leaf  and  flower, 
in  the  face  of  an  innocent  child,  and  rejoicing  in  it 
as  in  a  sacrament,  I  have  sunk  back  into  the  com- 
plainings of  a  narrow  and  blinded  heart. 

O  deliver  me  from  the  bondage  of  unchastened 
desires  and  unwholesome  thoughts.  Fill  me  with 
a  completer  trust  in  Thee.  Then  every  sorrow  will 
become  a  joy.  Then  shall  I  say  to  the  mountains 
that  lie  heavy  on  my  soul,  "Remove  and  be  cast 
hence,"   and  they  shall  remove,  and  nothing  shall 

^  119     '  *i* 


^  Prayera  for  ®obag  *if 

be  impossible  unto  me.     This  prayer  I  offer  in  the 
name  of  Jesus  Christ  my  Lord.     Amen. 


Meditation:    The  mystical  life  means  a  more  abundant  life. 

THE  true  mystic  quest  may  as  well  be  fulfilled  in  the 
market  as  in  the  cloister;  by  Joan  of  Arc  on  the 
battle-field  as  by  Simeon  Styhtes  on  his  pillar.  It  is  true 
that  since  hmnan  vitality  and  human  will  are  finite,  many 
of  the  great  mystics  have  found  it  necessary  to  concentrate 
their  love  and  their  attention  on  this  one  supreme  aspect 
of  the  "will-to-live." 

Hence  the  cloistered  mystic  obeys  a  necessity  of  his  own 
nature;  the  necessity  which  has  produced  specialists  in 
every  art.  But  the  life  for  which  he  strives,  if  he  achieves 
it,  floods  the  totality  of  his  being;  the  "energetic"  no  less 
than  the  "contemplative"  powers. 

The  real  achievements  of  Christian  mysticism  are  more 
clearly  seen  in  Catherine  of  Siena  regenerating  her  native 
city,  Joan  of  Arc  leading  the  armies  of  France,  Ignatius 
creating  the  society  of  Jesus,  Fox  giving  life  to  the  Society 
of  Friends,  than  in  all  the  ecstasies  and  austerities  of  the 
Egj'ptian  "fathers  in  the  desert."  That  mysticism  is  an 
exhibition  of  the  higher  powers  of  love;  a  love  which 
would  face  all  obstacles,  endm-e  all  purifications,  and 
cherish  and  strive  for  the  whole  world. 

In  all  its  variations,  it  demands  one  quaUty — humble 
and  heroic  effort. 

Evelyn  Underhill. 

>5  ~120  ^ 


PrayprH  for  ololiay 


LXI.      FOR    SPIRITUAL    REALITY 

MY  FATHER  and  my  God,  lead  me  and  guide 
me  on  the  dim  and  perilous  path  of  life.  Too 
long  have  I  directed  my  own  steps,  too  long  have 
I  lived  without  Thy  wisdom,  stumbling  in  the 
darkness  because  I  did  not  love  Thy  light.  But 
now  I  desire  nothing,  I  need  nothing  but  to  know 
that  Thou  art  in  me  and  that  I  am  in  Thee. 

Let  the  fire  of  Thy  love  consume  the  false  shows 
wherewith  my  weaker  self  has  deceived  me.  Make 
me  real  as  Thou  art  real.  Inspire  me  with  a  passion 
for  righteousness  and  likeness  to  the  Man  of  Naz- 
areth that  I  may  love  as  He  loved,  and  find  my 
joy  as  He  found  His  joy  in  being  and  doing  good. 
Only  when,  like  Him,  I  am  perfectly  united  to  Thee, 
shall  my  life  be  truly  alive. 

Dwell  Thou  within  me  to  give  me  His  courage, 
His  tenderness,  His  simplicity,  to  transform  my 
own  poor  shadow -self  into  the  likeness  of  His 
truth  and  strength.     Amen. 

Meditation:   The  secret  of  salvation  lies  in  the  entire  surrender 
of  the  heart  to  the  ideal. 

IS  it  all  an  illusion,  this  experience  of  religion?  "Can  any 
good  thing  come  out  of  Nazareth?"  asks  the  (loul)ting 
disciple.  And  the  answer  is,  "Come  and  see!"  Give  the 
ideal  hfe,  of  which  reUgion  teaches,  the  test  of  trying  it. 

^  121  * 


Irag^ra  fat  ©oiJag 


The  trial  has  been  made  of  it,  and  we  have  the  records 
of  lives  all  the  way  from  the  experience  of  those  lowest 
dwellers  in  the  slums  of  London,  whose  stories  of  conver- 
sion Begbie  recounts,  to  the  experience  of  such  saintly 
characters  as  St.  Thomas  Aquinas,  St.  Francis  of  Assisi, 
John  Wesley,  Martineau,  Brooks,  and  others  now  hving 
among  us,  who  have  told  us  of  their  experience — heroic, 
devoted  Uves  of  the  active  type  like  that  of  Doctor  Gren- 
fell;   or  of  the  type  of  those  who,  having  learned 

How  sublime  a  thing  it  is 
To  suifer  and  be  strong, 

have  brought  from  their  own  experience  insight,  sympathj', 
and  help  for  others'  need. 

But  how  shall  the  Ideal  be  won?  How  shall  we  find 
"the  way  of  life"?  The  real  secret  of  salvation  is  the 
absolute  and  entire  giving  of  the  heart  to  the  Ideal. 

This  is  what  we  find  in  the  stories  of  conversion  cases; 
in  the  experience  of  mystics;  in  the  pages  of  the  Imitation. 
It  is  no  half-hearted  surrender  of  o\ir  wills  which  the  unseen 
Good  demands.  Our  consecration  must  be  perfect.  "Sell 
all  thou  hast  and  come,  follow  me."  It  means  casting 
every  idol  from  the  heart.  It  means  a  transformation  of 
om'  values. 

A.  L.  Seaes. 


122 


Pragpra  for  (Unban 


LXII.      AN    EVENING    PRAYER    FOR    THE 
PRESENCE    OF    GOD 

ABIDE  with  me,  O  Lord,  this  night,  that  the 
■  brightness  of  Thy  love  may  be  around  me, 
and  that  the  darkness  may  be  not  dark.  Abide 
with  me,  O  Lord,  this  night,  for  in  loneliness  I  am 
not  alone  if  Thou  be  nigh. 

Abide  with  the  sick,  the  sorrowful,  the  forsaken, 
and  the  weary,  O  Lord,  to  strengthen,  to  comfort, 
to  cheer,  and  to  give  rest. 

Shield  me  from  that  darkness  of  the  soul  which 
seeth  Thee  not,  that  loneliness  of  the  heart  which 
heareth  not  Thy  voice.  Abide  with  me  through 
life  and  in  the  valley  of  the  shadow  of  death  forsake 
me  not,  but  bid  me  be  of  good  courage,  for  Thou 
art  with  me  still.     Amen. 

Meditation:    Enicrinq  into  the  soiiVs  inner  sanctuaiij. 

HKJH,  healthful,  pure  thinking  can  l)o  encouraged, 
promoted,  and  strengthened.  Its  current  can  be 
turn(Ml  upon  grand  ideals  until  it  forms  a  habit  and  wears 
a  channel.  By  means  of  such  (.liscii)line  the  mental  horizon 
can  be  flooded  with  the  sunshine  of  beaut.y,  wholeness,  and 
harmony.  To  inaugurate  pure  and  lofty  thinking  may  at 
first  seem  difficult,  even  almost  mechanical,  Init  persever- 
ance will  at  length  render  it  easy,  then  pleasant,  and  finally 
delightful. 

>i^  123  ^ 


J^ray^ra  for  Q^ohn^ 


The  soul's  real  world  is  that  which  it  has  built  of  its 
thoughts,  mental  states,  and  imaginations.  If  we  will, 
we  can  turn  our  backs  upon  the  lower  and  sensuous  plane, 
and  lift  ourselves  into  the  realm  of  the  spiritual  and  real, 
and  there  gain  a  residence.  The  assumption  of  states  of 
I  expectancy  and  receptivity  will  attract  spiritual  sunshine, 
and  it  wiU  flow  in  as  naturally  as  air  inclines  to  a  vacuum. 
Whenever  the  thought  is  not  occupied  with  one's  daily 
duty  or  confession,  it  should  be  sent  aloft  into  the  spiritual 
atmosphere. 

There  are  quiet  leisure  moments  by  day,  and  wakeful 
hours  at  night,  when  this  wholesome  and  dehghtful  ex- 
ercise may  be  engaged  in  to  a  great  advantage.  If  one  who 
has  never  made  any  systematic  effort  to  lift  and  control 
the  thought-forces  will,  for  a  single  month,  earnestly 
pursue  the  course  here  suggested,  he  will  be  surprised  and 
dehghted  at  the  result,  and  nothing  will  induce  liim  to  go 
back  to  careless,  aimless,  and  superficial  tliinking.  At 
such  favorable  seasons  the  outside  world,  with  aU  its  cur- 
rent of  daily  events,  is  barred  out,  and  one  goes  into  the 
silent  sanctuary  of  the  inner  temple  of  the  soul  to  commune 
and  aspire. 

The  spiritual  hearing  becomes  deUcately  sensitive,  so 
that  the  "still,  small  voice"  is  audible,  the  tumultuous 
waves  of  external  sense  are  hushed,  and  there  is  a  great 
calm. 

Henry  Wood. 


124 


Prag^rs  for  ©oba^ 


LXIII.     FOR    A    SENSE    OF    GOD'S    LOVE 

OMY  FATHER,  I  bring  my  prayer  unto  Thee. 
I  know  that  Thou  wilt  help  me  if  I  ask  Thee. 
Help  me  to  make  my  life  full  of  love,  perfect  love, 
toward  Thee  and  those  among  whom  Thou  hast 
placed  me. 

I  know  that  I  could  never  love  Thee  aright,  did 
I  not  also  love  them  faithfully.  I  would  love  and 
serve  Thee  truly,  for  I  love  Thee,  my  Father;  but 
I  need  to  feel  Thy  love,  else  mine  might  wax  faint 
and  feeble.  Help  me  to  keep  the  great  truth  ever 
bright  before  me,  that  Thou  lovest  me  always. 
Then  I  should  feel  no  task  hard,  no  loVe  toward 
others  a  difficulty.  Then  should  I  be  satisfied  and 
cheerful,  though  sorrow  and  care  should  come  to 
me.     Amen. 

Meditation:     He  who  loves  Christ  cannot  but  love  all  men. 

10VE,  wheresoever  it  appears,  is  in  its  measure  a 
^  lawmaking  power.  "Love  is  dutiful  in  thought  and 
deed."  And  as  the  lover  of  his  country  is  free  from  the 
temptation  to  treason,  so  is  he  who  loves  Clu-ist  secure  from 
the  temptation  to  injure  any  human  being,  whether  it  be 
himself  or  another. 

He  is  indeed  much  more  than  tliis.  He  is  bound  and  he 
is  eager  to  benefit  and  bless  to  the  utmost  of  his  power 
all  that  bear  his  Master's  nature,  and  that  not  merely 

^  125  *h 


>h  Prayprs  for  ^ahu^  ^ 

with  the  good  gifts  of  the  earth,  but  with  whatever  cherishes 
and  trains  best  the  Christ  within  them.  But  for  the  present 
we  are  concerned  merely  with  the  power  of  this  passion 
to  hft  the  man  out  of  sin.  The  injuries  he  committed 
Ughtly  when  he  regarded  his  fellow-creatures  simply  as 
animals  who  added  to  the  fierceness  of  the  brute  an  ingenuity 
and  forethought  that  made  them  doubly  noxious,  become 
horrible  sacrilege  when  he  sees  in  them  no  longer  the 
animal,  but  the  Christ. 

And  that  other  class  of  crimes  wliich  belongs  more  especi- 
ally to  ages  of  civihzation,  and  arises  out  of  a  c5Tiical  con- 
tempt for  the  species,  is  rendered  equally  impossible  to 
the  man  who  hears  ^vith  reverence  the  announcement, 
"The  good  deeds  you  did  to  the  least  of  these  my  brethren 
you  did  to'  me." 

Sir  John  Seeley. 


126 


Prayprs  for  (Tobag 


LXIV.     IN    THE    EVENING    OF    LIFE 

OGOD,  Heavenly  Father,  whose  gift  is  length 
of  days,  help  us  to  make  the  noblest  use  of 
mind  and  body  in  our  advancing  years.  According 
to  our  strength  apportion  Thou  our  work.  As  Thou 
hast  pardoned  our  transgressions,  sift  the  gatherings 
of  our  memory  that  evil  may  grow  dim  and  good 
may  shine  forth  clearly. 

We  bless  Thee  for  Thy  gifts,  and  especially  for 
Thy  presence  and  the  love  of  friends  in  heaven  and 
earth.  Grant  us  new  ties  of  friendship,  new  op- 
portunities of  service,  joy  in  the  growth  and  hap- 
piness of  children,  sympathy  with  those  who  bear 
the  burdens  of  the  world,  clear  thought  and  quiet 
faith. 

Teach  us  to  bear  infirmities  with  cheerful  pa- 
tience. Keep  us  from  narrow  pride  in  outgrown  ways, 
blind  eyes  that  will  not  see  the  good  of  change,  im- 
patient judgments  of  the  methods  and  experiments 
of  others.  Let  Thy  peace  rule  our  spirits  through 
all  the  trial  of  our  waning  powers.  Take  from  us 
all  fear  of  death  and  all  despair  or  undue  love  of 
life,  that  with  glad  hearts  at  rest  in  Thee  we  may 
await  Thy  will  concerning  us;  through  Jesus  Christ 
our  Lord.     Amen. 


127 


JPragprs  for  (Fobag 


Meditation:    Not  death,  but  life,  is  important. 

IT  is  wrong  to  think  of  destiny  only  in  connection  with 
death  and  disaster.  When  shall  we  cease  to  beheve 
that  death,  and  not  life,  is  important;  that  misfortune  is 
greater  than  happiness?  Why,  when  we  try  to  sum  up  a 
man's  destiny,  keep  our  eyes  fixed  only  on  the  tears  that 
he  shed,  and  never  on  the  smiles  of  his  joy?  Where  have 
we  learned  that  death  fixes  the  value  of  life,  and  not  life 
that  of  death?  We  deplore  the  destiny  of  Socrates,  Dimcan, 
Antigone,  and  many  others  whose  lives  were  noble;  we 
deplore  their  destiny  because  their  end  was  sudden  and 
cruel;  and  we  are  fain  to  admit  that  misfortime  prevails 
over  wisdom  and  virtue  aUke. 

But,  first  of  all,  you  yourself  are  neither  just  nor  wise 
if  you  seek  in  wisdom  and  justice  aught  else  but  wisdom 
and  justice  alone.  And  further,  what  right  have  we  thus 
to  siun  up  an  entire  existence  in  the  one  hour  of  death? 
Why  conclude,  from  the  fact  that  Socrates  and  Antigone 
met  with  vmhappy  ends,  that  it  was  their  wisdom  or  virtue 
brought  unhappiness  to  them? 

Does  death  occupy  more  space  in  life  than  birth?  Yet 
do  you  not  take  the  sage's  birth  into  account  as  you  ponder 
over  liis  destiny?  Happiness  or  unhappiness  arises  from 
all  that  we  do  from  the  day  of  our  birth  to  the  day  of  our 
death;  and  it  is  not  in  death,  but  indeed  in  the  days  and 
the  years  that  precede  it,  that  we  can  discover  a  man's 
true  happiness  or  sorrow — in  a  word,  his  destiny. 

M.  Maeterlinck. 


^  128 


*ii  JpragprB  for  ®oJiay  >i* 

LXV.      FOR    A    SENSE    OF    THE    SOUL'S 
GREATNESS 

MEET  me,  O  Lord,  meet  me  alone!  Let  me 
feel  for  one  moment  the  awful  dignity  of 
my  own  soul!  I  am  not  so  much  afraid  of  Thy 
judgment-day  as  of  the  general  assize  which  men 
have  figured  there.  I  fear  lest  the  sight  of  the  crowd 
may  dim  the  sight  of  my  own  importance.  I  have 
heard  men  say  that  my  danger  lies  in  my  pride. 
No;  it  lies  in  my  humility. 

I  have  not  realized  the  possibilities  of  my  own 
soul.  I  have  viewed  myself  as  a  fragment  of  the 
race,  as  a  drop  of  the  stream.  In  the  hour  of  my 
vices  I  have  said,  "These  have  come  from  my 
fathers."  I  have  sheltered  myself  under  my  own 
nothingness.  I  have  hid  myself  from  Thee  among 
the  lives  of  my  ancestors. 

Send .  the  multitude  away — the  multitude  of  my 
ancestors.  Meet  me  on  my  own  threshold.  Reveal 
to  me  my  greatness!  Read  me  the  charter  of  my 
human  freedom!  When  Thou  hast  magnified  my 
soul  I  shall  learn  my  need  of  Thee.     Amen. 

Meditation:    We  are  iiot  merehj  caused,  hut  are  causes. 

IF  conscience   can   make  a  man    at    times  a  cdwanl,  at 
other  moments  it  can  make  him  a  liero.      He  divines 
sometliing  within  him  which  no  natural  history  can  ex- 

*h  129  ^ 


^  Pra^^rs  for  ®oJ»ag  ^ 

plain,  the  categorical  imperative,  as  Kant  called  it,  obedi- 
ence to  which  issues  in  a  well-knit  personality,  clearly 
defined  and  separate  not  only  from  the  shifting  scenery 
of  this  world,  but  from  the  Infinite  God  Himself.  Through 
the  effort  to  obey  conscience  we  gain  an  ever  richer  fullness 
of  being. 

We  are  not  merely  caused,  but  are  causes.  We  can 
create  character.  We  can  organize  and  spiritualize  the 
raw  material  given  us  by  heredity  and  nature.  We  can 
wrestle  with  passion  and  subdue  evil  impulse  and  pour 
into  the  veins  of  moral  weakness  the  iron  of  noble  purpose. 
Still  more,  there  are  times,  all  too  rare,  when,  as  we  say, 
we  rise  above  ourselves.  The  interests  of  life,  the  dull 
routine  of  our  daily  work,  the  conventions  of  the  social 
order  to  which  we  belong,  act  as  inhibitions  on  our  deeper 
psychic  energies,  and  all  too  successfully  conceal  the  slum- 
bering possibilities  of  moral  greatness. 

But  let  some  catastrophe  break  through  convention, 
let  some  sudden  call  of  duty  or  affection  sound  in  our 
sluggish  ears,  and  in  a  moment  the  mask  is  tlirown  off, 
inward  energies  awake,  and  in  self-forgetting  devotion  we 
take  up  burdens  and  share  other's  griefs  and  pour  contempt 
on  death  itself.  And  what  is  this  but  a  witness  of  the  truth 
that  we  are  infinitely  more  every  moment  than  we  know, 
that  our  true  home  is  not  earth  and  time,  but  God  and 
eternity? 

Samuel  McComb. 


>b  130 


>h  JPray^rs  for  ®nbay  >i* 

LXVI.    THANKSGIVING  FOR  UNANSWERED 
PRAYER 

THOU  hast  called  us  to  Thyself,  Most  Merciful 
Father,  with  love* and  with  promises  abundant; 
and  we  are  witnesses  that  it  is  not  in  vain  that  we 
draw  near  to  Thee. 

We  bear  witness  to  Thy  faithfulness.  Thy  prom- 
ises are  Yea  and  Amen.  Thy  blessings  are  exceed- 
ing abundant,  more  than  we  know  or  think.  We 
thank  Thee  for  the  privilege  of  prayer,  and  for 
thine  answers  to  prayer;  and  we  rejoice  that  Thou 
dost  not  answer  according  to  our  petitions.  We 
are  blind,  and  are  constantly  seeking  things  which 
are  not  best  for  us.  If  Thou  didst  grant  all  our 
desires  according  to  our  requests,  we  should  be 
ruined. 

In  dealing  with  our  little  children  we  give  them, 
not  the  things  which  they  ask  for,  but  the  things 
which  we  judge  to  be  the  best  for  them;  and  Thou, 
our  Father,  art  by  Thy  providence  over-ruling  our 
ignorance  and  our  headstrong  mistakes,  and  art 
doing  for  us,  not  so  much  the  things  that  we 
request  of  Thee  as  the  things  that  we  should  ask; 
and  we  are,  day  by  day,  saved  from  peril  and 
from  ruin  by  Thy  better  knowledge  and  by  Thy 
careful  love.     Amen. 


^  181 


^  Prag^ra  for  Sobag  *h 

Meditation:  Sometimes  our  prayers  are  not  answered  because 
God  is  greater  than  we. 

IN  the  prayers  of  very  many  of  those  who  love  God, 
slowly  a  change  is  wrought.  We  begin  life  with  eager 
and  impatient  hearts;  and  in  the  impatience  and  the  eager- 
ness our  religion  on  all  its  sides  is  likely  to  share.  Our 
plans  and  hopes  stand  clearly  before  our  minds;  when 
danger  tlxreatens  them,  our  sense  of  the  danger  is  acute  and 
vivid. 

The  imminence  of  the  peril,  the  cruelty  of  the  possible 
loss,  the  loveliness  of  that  which  seems  about  to  be  destroyed, 
the  hopelessness  of  a  future  from  which  those  fair  forms 
are  gone,  or  in  which  those  carefully  formed  plans  are  to 
find  no  realization  and  have  no  place — with  pitiless  clear- 
ness all  this  is  present  to  our  minds,  and  we  hasten  to  God 
with  petitions  most  definite  and  most  urgent. 

But  the  God  to  Whom  we  have  prayed  is  greater  than 
we.  His  love  is  a  love  for  individuals;  but  He  sees  the 
part  in  the  whole,  and  time  as  eternity.  .  .  . 

With  eternal  patience,  with  a  wisdom  beyond  our  earthly 
comprehension.  He  works  out  His  vast  designs,  and  into 
those  designs  He  weaves  our  lives;  so  that  sometimes  the 
answer  we  had  so  eagerly  prayed  for  comes,  but  sometimes 
does  not  come — does  not  come,  because  in  its  place  comes 
something  greater,  something  longer  in  its  process  and 
wider  in  its  issues,  leading  us  out  through  slow  years  into 
fields  of  life  more  somber  in  color  than  those  we  had  planned, 
but  greater  in  labor  and  deeper  in  truth. 

James  Hastings. 

*h  132  *h 


>h  l^rujitvsi  for  (ilnJiag  ►f. 

LXVII.     A    PRAYER    OF    ADORATION 

ALMIGHTY  and  everlasting  God,  we  adore 
.  Thee  as  the  God  of  light  and  power.  Shine 
through  the  clouds  that  dim  our  vision.  Strengthen 
our  weak  hearts,  that  we  may  love  Thee  and  serve 
Thee  in  freedom  and  gladness.  This  world,  which 
Thou  hast  committed  to  us,  is  radiant  with  Thy 
presence.  Go  where  we  will,  we  cannot  flee  from 
Thy  Spirit,  that  speaks  to  us  in  the  calm  and  order 
and  beauty  of  Nature.  For  in  our  souls  Thou 
dwellest,  and  openest  our  eyes  to  read  Thy  thought 
in  sun  and  star,  in  field  and  flower.  We  bless  Thee 
that  Nature  does  not  exhaust  the  fullness  of  Thy 
being.  We  rejoice  that,  in  the  fight  with  temptation, 
we  are  not  alone,  for  Thou  art  our  secret  Helper. 
We  praise  Thee  that  in  all  our  affliction  Thou  art 
afflicted,  that  in  every  sorrow  or  disappointment  or 
failure  Thou  dost  not  give  us  over  to  our  weak  re- 
pining, but  dost  summon  us  to  self-knowledge  and 
to  peace. 


Take  from  us  all  foolish  fears,  all  sinful  discontent. 
Fill  our  hearts  with  the  sunshine  of  Thy  love,  so 
that  we  may  give  freely  to  all  men  of  what  we  have 
and  of  what  we  are.  These  prayers  we  offer  in 
Christ's  name.     Amen. 


133 


^  Praypra  for  Qlobay  >ii 

Meditation:     Our  union  with  God  is  unspeakably  intimate. 

HOWEVER  high  God  stands  above  His  creatures,  He 
uses  them  as  His  instruments  and  organs  and  as  the 
means  of  His  grace.  He  is  not  blind  nor  deaf,  for  He  sees 
with  the  eyes  of  all  His  creatures  and  hears  with  all  their 
ears.  No  creature  is  so  humble  and  small  that  it  does 
not  serve  God  as  a  sphere  of  His  action.  No  creature  is 
so  great  and  high  that  it  is  not  part  of  a  still  greater  and 
higher,  through  which  it  contributes  its  proportion  to  the 
performance  of  God's  will.  So  in  God  we  are  all  imited. 
Our  httle  souls  are  parts  of  His  soul  wliich  works  through 
us  as  mind  works  through  its  thoughts.  We  are  conscious 
of  tliis  infinite  element  witlain  us,  the  point  at  which  the 
collective  WiU  of  the  Universe  touches  our  will.  We  call 
it  conscience.  To  know  God  as  the  Being  whose  knowledge 
comprehends  aU  that  is  known  or  can  be  known  is  the  highest 
of  all  knowledge.  If  a  man  would  know  everything  there 
is  to  be  known  in  the  world,  he  need  only  know  what  that 
Being  knows  who  is  above  the  world;  and  did  he  know  all 
else  and  did  not  know  that  there  is  such  a  Being,  his  knowl- 
edge would  be  but  patchwork.  Since  God  knows  all.  He 
knows  our  sorrows,  our  sin  and  shortcomings.  He  surveys 
the  world  through  your  eyes.  He  feels  the  sorrows  of  ex- 
istence through  your  heart.  Therefore  let  what  you  think 
and  feel  and  see  and  do  be  worthy  of  His  eyes  and  of  His 
compassion. 

Elwood  Worcester. 


>h  134 


^  JpragFra  for  Qlahn\$  ^ 

LXVIII.      ON    NEW    YEAR'S    DAY 

OTHOU  Who  still  remainest,  though  all  else 
perish,  my  Father  and  my  Friend,  in  spite 
of  loss  and  failure,  I  rejoice  today  in  the  fulfilment  of 
another  year  of  life,  of  work,  of  thought  and  service. 

Wherein  I  have  failed  to  read  Thy  will,  or  to 
yield  my  heart  to  the  pleadings  of  Thy  love,  wherein 
I  have,  by  act  or  word,  added  to  the  sin  and  sorrow 
of  the  world,  do  Thou  forgive  and  show  to  me  once 
more  Thy  mercy  and  transform  my  evil  into  good. 
I  dedicate  myself  anew  to  Thee  this  day.  The 
past  Thou  hast  withdrawn  into  Thy  eternity,  but 
the  future  Thou  hast  left  still  open  to  my  care. 

Renew  my  faith  in  Thee,  my  Father-God;  refresh 
my  tired  spirit.  Give  me  to  renounce  every  weak- 
ness, to  put  beneath  me  every  cowardice  and  fear. 
Give  me  to  dare  and  to  overcome.  Grant  me  to 
live  in  noble  purposes,  in  Christ-like  deeds,  that 
shall  give  to  my  years  dignity  and  worth,  and 
sustain  me  with  the  glad  hope  that  beyond  time 
and  place  Thou  wilt  permit  me  still  to  serve  and 
to  aspire;   for  Thy  name's  sake.     Amen. 

Meditation:    Action,  not  feeling,  is  the  true  test  of  character. 

NO  matter  how  full  a  reservoir  of  maxims  one  may 
possess,  and  no  matter  how  good  one's  sentiments 
may  be,  if  one  have  not  taken  advantage  of  every  concrete 
opportunity  to  act,  one's  character  may  remain  entirely 

^  135  *i* 


^  J^ray^rs  for  Qloliay  ^ 

unaffected  for  the  better.    With  mere  good  intentions  hell 
is  proverbially  paved. 

A  "character,"  as  J.  S.  Mill  says,  "is  a  completely 
fashioned  will";  and  a  will,  in  the  sense  in  which  he  means 
it,  is  an  aggregate  of  tendencies  to  act  in  a  firm  and  prompt 
and  definite  way  upon  all  the  principal  emergencies  of 
life.  A  tendency  to  act  only  becomes  effectively  ingrained 
in  us  in  proportion  to  the  uninterrupted  frequency  with 
which  the  actions  actually  occur,  and  the  brain  "grows" 
to  their  use. 

Every  time  a  resolve  or  a  fine  glow  of  feeUng  evaporates 
without  bearing  practical  fruit  is  worse  than  a  chance  lost ; 
it  works  so  as  positively  to  liinder  future  resolutions  and 
emotions  from  taking  the  normal  path  of  discharge.  There 
is  no  more  contemptible  type  of  human  character  than 
that  of  the  nerveless  sentimentalist  and  dreamer,  who 
spends  Ms  life  in  a  weltering  sea  of  sensibilitj^  and  emotion, 
but  who  never  does  a  manly,  concrete  deed. 

William  James. 


^  136 


LXIX.     A    CHRISTMAS    PRAYER 

O  CHILD  of  Bethlehem,  give  us  thankful  hearts 
today  for  Thee,  our  choicest  gift,  our  dearest 
guest. 

Let  not  our  souls  be  busy  inns  that  have  no  room 
for  Thee  and  Thine,  but  quiet  homes  of  prayer  and 
praise  where  Thou  mayst  find  fit  company,  where 
the  needful  cares  of  life  are  wisely  ordered  and  put 
away,  and  wide,  sweet  spaces  kept  for  Thee,  where 
holy  thoughts  pass  up  and  down,  and  fervent  long- 
ings watch  and  wait  Thy  coming. 

So  when  Thou  comest  again,  O  Blessed  One, 
mayst  Thou  find  all  things  ready,  and  Thy  servants 
waiting  for  no  new  master;  but  for  one  long  loved 
and  known. 

Even  so,  come.  Lord  Jesus.     Amen. 

Meditation:    The  greatness  of  life  is  to  be  measured  cnly  by 
the  indwelling  Christ. 

NOW  here,  it  seems  to  me,  is  just  one  of  tlie  divinest 
offices  of  our  religion.  It  makes  us  fcM^l  the  httleness 
to  which  wc  liave  reduced  our  lives,  and  then  jii-oclainis, 
in  contrast  witli  that  littleness,  the  great  scale  on  which 
God  built  those  lives  and  the  great  capacity  God  meant 
for  them  to  have. 

"You  have  crampetl  your  life,"  it  seems  to  say.  "You 
have  made  it  small  and  narrow,     l^y  long  unspirituality 

^  137  * 


J^ragfra  for  Eahn^ 


you  have  made  its  door  so  low  that  none  but  short  or 
stooping  thoughts  can  enter.  You  have  made  its  rooms  so 
mean  that  great  truths  cannot  Hve  in  them.  But  never 
dare  to  think  that  this  was  God's  plan  for  your  life. 

"  He  drew  its  architecture  on  a  lordly  scale.  He  designed 
for  you  great,  generous,  capacious  lives.  He  built  you  to 
be  'temples  of  the  Holy  Ghost.'  There  are  chambers  in 
your  nature,  walled  up  by  long  obstinacy  or  rubbished  by 
long  neglect,  which  were  shaped  and  garnished  for  His 
own  holy  occupancy.  Man — in  the  face  of  all  liis  degraded 
humanity  be.  it  spoken — was  made  fit  for  a  birthplace  of 
the  Christ." 

To  the  sensualist  who  has  turned  his  soul  into  a  home 
of  lust;  to  the  poor  inebriate  whose  life  is  reeking  with  the 
fumes  of  stale  and  sickly  habit;  to  the  trifler  who  has  in- 
dustriously tented  himself  about  with  glittering  tinsel; 
to  the  mean  man  who  has  been  deliberately  cramping  up 
his  stingy  heart,  walling  up  windows,  pinching  in  doors, 
studiously  making  his  existence  small — to  each  of  them  the 
Gospel  brings  its  protests:  "You  may  make  your  hves 
foul  and  tawdry  and  meager;  you  may  cUminish  them  and 
overcrowd  them  till  there  is  no  room  for  a  noble  thought 
or  for  a  pure  desire ;  but  you  do  it  at  your  peril.  God  made 
them  roomy;  and  there  is  room  for  His  Holy  Son  to  find 
a  nativity  witliin  them  if  you  will  only  set  and  keep  their 
chambers  open." 

Phillips  Brooks. 


138  ^ 


Pragpra  for  OJobag 


LXX.      AN    EASTER    PRAYER 

OTHOU  that  tumest  the  shadow  of  death  into 
the  morning,  on  this  day  of  days  our  hearts 
exult  with  heavenly  joy.  All  things  conspire  to 
make  us  sure  of  Thee:  the  gracious  sunshine,  the 
stir  of  springtime,  the  morning  rapture  of  the  birds; 
but  greater  far,  a  secret  thrill  runs  through  the  air 
from  far-off  days. 

Easter  day  breaks!  Christ  rises!  Mercy  every 
way  is  infinite. 

The  clouds  are  vanished  from  the  sky,  doubts 
are  driven  from  the  mind,  Thou  hast  conquered  our 
last  enemy,  and  our  tongues  are  filled  with  singing' 
Pain  has  been  our  portion  here,  but  now  we  know 
that  in  all  pain  there  lies  the  promise  of  redemption. 

Thou  dost  plan  our  lives  to  cross  the  valley  of 
Humiliation,  to  climb  the  hill  Difficulty,  and  then 
at  last  descend  where  waits  the  shadow  feared  by 
man.  But  now  we  know  it  is  a  shadow  only.  The 
grim-barred  gate  of  death  swings  back,  and  the 
glory  from  an  endless  world  shines  through,  beyond 
the  mind's  imagining,  beyond  our  hearts'  desire. 
Our  Jesus  now  is  crowned  with  glory,  clothed  in 
victory,  and  vested  with  the  keys  of  death  and 
hell. 

Praise  be  unto  Thee,  O  Lord  most  high.     Amen. 


139 


*i^  Jpraypra  for  Sobay  ^ 

Meditation:     In  Christ  is  seen  the  law  of  love  triumphing 
over  the  law  of  sin  and  death. 

IN  the  life  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth  we  see,  as  in  a  pure  crystal, 
the  whole  world-drama  of  the  law  of  righteousness  and 
life  overcoming  the  law  of  sin  and  death. 

In  the  confusion  of  good  and  evil  in  the  world  it  needed 
a  supreme  degree  of  spiritual  insight  to  discern  what  human 
goodness  really  consisted  in,  and  what  was  sin;  but  in 
the  precepts  of  the  Christ  we  see  collected  the  whole  true 
secret  of  man's  well-being  and  true  power,  the  way  of  hfe 
which  will  make  the  individual  life  secure  upon  the  rock  of 
salvation,  the  way  of  social  life  which  can  alone  bring  a 
lasting  and  universal  good-wiU  to  the  sons  of  men. 
■  In  His  example  we  see  that  the  love  which  must  animate 
the  life  of  true  power  must  persist  in  face  of  all  possible 
animosity  and  discouragement,  in  the  face  of  torture  and 
death,  and  even  the  sense  of  desertion  by  the  God  of  love. 

In  His  resurrection  we  see  that  the  spiritual  power  of 
the  life  of  love  is  not  bounded  by  this  life;  the  splendid 
outburst  of  the  power  of  the  risen  Christ  that  was  seen  in 
the  joy,  the  power,  and  the  rapid  multipUcation  of  the  early 
Church  and  the  final  Christianizing  of  Europe  is  material 
evidence  to  us,  who  are  material  creatures,  that  the  law 
of  the  spirit  of  Ufe,  as  exemphfied  in  the  ardent  love  of 
Christ,  does  indeed  triumph  over  the  law  of  sin  and  death. 
The  Author  of  "Pro  Christo  et  Ecclesia." 


>i*  140 


^ 


Praprfi  fov  a  Eitm  of  Mar 


141 


^  PrayrrH  far  (Eo6ag  >i* 

LXXI.     FOR    SPIRITUAL   BLESSING   IN 
SORROW 

OTHOU  in  Whom  we  live  and  move  and  have 
our  being,  Who  seest  where  we  are  blind, 
Who  knowest  where  we  are  ignorant,  do  as  Thou 
thinkest  fit  with  us  this  day. 

We  ask  Thee  not,  we  dare  not  ask  Thee,  for 
earthly  blessings  for  ourselves  or  those  we  hold 
most  dear,  but  we  pray  Thee  to  grant  us  faith  and 
hope  and  love  without  measure. 

We  ask  Thee  to  be  the  crown  of  all  our  joys,  our 
abiding  shelter  in  every  sorrow,  the  good  shepherd 
of  Thy  flock  throughout  the  world,  leading  them 
through  weariness  and  trouble  here  to  Thy  heavenly 
fold  on  high,  where  peace  and  joy  forever  dwell, 
and  where  Thou  wilt  be  all  in  all.     Amen. 

Meditation:    "Tfiey  that  sow  in  tears  shall  reap  in  joy." 

THE  moment  we  set  our  minds  upon  this  theme, 
"The  joys  that  are  purchased  by  sorrow,"  we  per- 
ceive its  far-reachins,  manifold  applications  to  the  life  and 
the  energy  of  man.  To  say  that  wcU-nigh  every  joy  in 
human  life  has  some  element  or  touch  of  sadness  blended 
with  it  is  a  truth;  but  not  the  truth  we  are  endeavoring 
to  express  today.  He  who  was  the  deepest  student  of 
the  heart's  joy  and  suffering,  of  life's  mixed  light  and 
darkness,  that  has  spoken  since  tlie  Hebrew  psalmists, 
has  spoken  of  "our  joys"  as  "three  parts  pain." 

^  143  Hh 


^  J^rag^ra  for  ©oJia^  ^ 

Granting  that  they  are,  this  is  not  the  thought  that  is 
chiefly  embodied  in  that  magnificent  Une  of  hope.  "They 
that  sow  in  tears  shall  reap  in  joy."  That  tells  us  not  so 
much  of  the  pain  that  may  be  mixed  with  joy,  but  of  the 
joy  that  is  purchased  and  purchasable  only  through  pain. 
There  is  such  joy,  and  it  is  the  harvest  of  those  who  have 
been  brave  enough  to  sow  in  tears.  Herein  is  a  law  reaching, 
in  its  scope,  from  things  physical  and  material  up  to  things 
that  hnk  our  nature  in  with  the  very  Cross  and  Passion 
of  the  Son  of  God,  the  law  of  joy  that  is  purchased  by  sorrow. 

Some  are  shut  out  from  the  scope  of  this  law,  so  that  it 
does  not  cover  them  nor  touch  them;  they  live  and  die 
outside  of  its  influence.  Who  are  they  that  live  outside 
of  its  influence?  They  are  those  who  have  sought  happi- 
ness as  an  end  in  itself,  and  as  the  chief  purpose  of  life,  and 
who  have  set  themselves  to  attain  that  end  by  evading  pain, 
and  strain,  and  the  hardness  of  things  wherever  they  can. 

I  speak  in  perfect  kindness  and  good  faith  when  I  say, 
"They  have  their  reward";  such  a  theory  of  life  has  its 
obvious  compensations.  But  such  a  life,  with  its  inherent 
dread  of  discomfort,  and,  at  last,  its  almost  involuntary 
protest  against  sorrow,  seems,  I  think,  to  be  doing  its  own 
finer  selfhood  a  perpetual  injustice  in  making  so  much 
of  ease;  for  it  is  compelling  itself  to  live,  so  far  as  possible, 
outside  of  that  broad  zone  of  experience,  and  outside  of 
that  great  law  within  which  are  surely  comprehended  some 
of  the  most  truly  grand  manifestations  of  character,  and 
some  of  the  most  truly  lofty  joys,  which  have  ever  been — 
the  joys  that  are  purchased  by  sorrow. 

T.  CuTHBERT  Hall. 

^  144  ^ 


Pragpra  for  ©aJJag 


LXXII.     FOR    AN    END    OF    WAR 

UNTO  Thee,  O  Lord,  we  cry,  in  the  night  of 
the  world's  darkness,  for  the  coming  of  the 
dawn  of  peace.  Is  not  the  earth  Thine?  Are  not 
the  hearts  of  all  men  in  Thy  keeping? 

Remember  the  desolate  homes,  the  long  suspense 
of  waiting,  the  sorrows  of  the  exiled  and  the  poor, 
the  growth  of  hate,  the  hindrance  of  good,  and 
make  an  end  of  war.  By  the  love  we  bear  to  fathers, 
brothers,  lovers,  sons,  by  the  long  agony  of  trench 
and  battle-field  and  hospital,  by  the  woe  brought 
home  to  the  hearts  of  mothers  and  by  the  or- 
phaned children's  need,  hasten  Thou  the  coming  of 
the  ages  of  good -will. 

Raise  up  leaders  for  the  work  of  peace.  Show  us 
our  part  in  the  redemption  of  the  world  from  cruelty 
and  hate  and  make  us  faithful  and  courageous.  In 
the  name  of  Him  whose  kingdom  is  our  heart's 
desire  and  whose  will  for  men  is  love.     Amen. 

Meditation:    War  is  evil,  bid  not  wholly  evil. 

DAY  after  day  come  streams  of  letters  from  the  front, 
odd  stories,  fragments  of  diaries,  and  the  like,  full  of 
the  small,  intimate  facts  which  reveal  character;  and  almost 
with  one  accord  they  show  that  these  men  have  not  fallen, 
but  risen.  No  doubt  there  has  been  some  selection  in  the 
letters;   to  some  extent  the  writers  repeat  what  they  wish 

^  145  ^ 


^  JpragprH  for  ©nJiay  ^ 

to  have  remembered,  and  say  nothing  of  what  they  wish 
to  forget;  but,  when  all  allowances  are  made,  one  cannot 
read  the  letters  and  the  despatches  without  a  feeling  of 
almost  passionate  admiration  for  the  men  about  whom 
they  tell. 

They  were  not  originally  a  set  of  men  chosen  for  their 
pecuhar  qualities.  They  were  just  our  ordinary  feUow- 
citizens,  the  men  you  meet  on  a  crowded  pavement.  There 
was  notlaing  to  suggest  that  their  conduct  in  common  life 
was  better  than  that  of  their  neighbors,  yet  now,  under  the 
stress  of  war,  having  a  duty  before  them  that  is  clear  and 
unquestioned  and  terrible,  they  are  daily  doing  nobler 
things  than  we,  most  of  us,  have  ever  had  the  chance  of 
doing— tilings  wloich  we  hardly  dare  hope  that  we  might 
be  able  to  do. 

I  am  not  thinking  of  the  rare  achievements  that  vnn  a 
V.  C.  or  a  cross  of  the  Legion  of  Honor,  but  of  the  common, 
necessary  heroism  of  the  average  men;  the  long  endurance, 
the  devoted  obedience,  the  close-banded  hfe  in  which  self- 
sacrifice  is  the  normal  rule  and  aU  men  may  be  forgiven 
except  the  man  who  saves  himself  at  the  expense  of  liis 
comrade.  I  tliink  of  the  men  who  share  their  last  biscuit 
with  a  starving  peasant,  who  help  wounded  comrades 
tlu-ough  days  and  nights  of  horrible  retreat,  who  give  their 
hves  to  save  mates  or  officers;  of  the  expressions  on  faces 
that  I  have  seen  or  read  about,  something  alert  and  glad 
and  self-respecting  in  the  eyes  of  those  who  are  going  to 
the  front,  and  even  of  the  wounded  who  are  returning. 

Gilbert  Murray. 


146 


^  fragfra  for  ©obag  ^ 

LXXIII.     FOR  FAITH  IN  THE  VICTORY  OF 
GOODNESS 

AMID  the  many  clashing  forces  which  together 
L  constitute  the  world,  some  of  which  make 
for  life,  health,  peace,  joy;  others  for  discord, 
disease,  misery,  death — grant  that  the  little  I  can 
do  may  be  sweet,  sound,  just,  generous;  allied  to 
the  great  stream  of  force  making  for  good  which  is 
Thy  will. 

This  once  secured,  may  I  drop  at  Thy  feet  my 
burden  of  responsibility,  knowing  that  in  any  event 
the  issue  is  never  the  result  of  my  single  effort,  but 
the  resultant  of  ten  thousand  forces  of  which  my 
act  is  only  one. 

When  the  event  is  outwardly  and  visibly  success- 
ful, may  I  not  be  puffed  up,  but  rather  modestly 
thankful  for  the  other  conditions  which  make  the 
success  of  my  effort  possible;  humbly  grateful  for 
the  privilege  of  sharing  in  an  achievement  which 
is  mainly  Thine. 

When  the  event  is  apparent  failure,  may  I  have 
the  assurance  that  it  is  due  to  factors  which  I  did 
not  contribute  and  could  not  control;  that  in  spite 
of  this  particular  defeat  the  powers  of  good  are  so 
much  stronger,  the  powers  of  evil  so  much  weaker, 
for  the  good  effort  I  put  forth.     Amen. 


^  147 


►J^  JPraypra  for  ©oJiag  >h 

Meditation:     God  appoints  us  the  period  of  time  in  which 
we  are  to  live  and  do  our  work. 

AWAY  with  that  cowardly  language  which  some  of  us 
■  are  apt  to  indulge  in  when  we  speak  of  one  period 
as  being  more  dangerous  than  another;  when  we  wish  we 
were  not  born  into  the  age  of  revolutions,  or  complain  that 
the  time  of  quiet  beUef  is  passed,  and  that  henceforth  every 
man  must  ask  himself  whether  he  has  any  ground  to  stand 
upon,  or  whether  all  beneath  him  is  hollow. 

We  are  falhng  into  the  temptation  when  we  thus  lament 
over  it.  We  are  practically  confessing  that  the  evil  spirit 
is  the  lord  of  all;  that  times  and  seasons  are  in  his  hand. 
Let  us  clear  om*  minds  from  every  taint  of  that  blasphemy. 
God  has  brought  us  into  this  time;  He,  and  not  ourselves 
or  some  dark  demon.  If  we  are  not  fit  to  cope  with  that 
which  He  has  prepared  for  us,  we  should  have  been  utterly 
unfit  for  any  condition  that  we  imagine  for  ourselves. 

In  this  time  we  are  to  live  and  wTestle,  and  in  no  other. 
Let  us,  humbly,  trembUngly,  manfully,  look  at  it,  and  we 
shall  not  wish  that  the  sun  could  go  back  its  ten  degrees, 
or  that  we  could  go  back  with  it.  If  easy  times  are  departed, 
it  is  that  the  difficult  times  may  make  us  more  in  earnest; 
that  they  may  teach  us  not  to  depend  upon  ourselves. 

If  an  hour  is  at  hand  which  will  try  all  the  inhabitants 
of  the  earth,  it  is  that  we  may  learn  for  all  to  say,  "Lead 
us  not  into  the  temptation"  of  our  times;  that  so  we  may 
be  enabled  with  greater  confidence  and  hope  to  join  in 
the  cry  of  every  time,  "DeUver  us  from  evil." 

Frederick  Denison  Maurice. 

>i<  148  ^ 


^  JPragerB  for  (Uobay  ►ji 

LXXIV.     A    SOLDIER'S    PRAYER 

Lord,  ere  I  join  in  deadly  strife 

And  battle's  terrors  dare, 
First  would  I  render  soul  and  life 

To  Thine  Almighty  care. 
And  when  grim  death,  in  smoke-wreaths  robed, 

Comes  thundering  o'er  the  scene. 
What  fear  can  reach  the  soldier's  heart. 

Whose  trust  in  Thee  has  been? 

Meditation:    Courage  is  an  achievement  of  the  will  motived 
by  right  and  love. 

THE  sources  of  the  courage  which  in  the  mass  of  men 
will  stand  all  kinds  of  danger  are  not  to  be  found  only 
in  physical,  but  much  more  in  moral  and  spiritual  training. 
Courage  is  of  the  first  importance  for  life.  It  is  well  to 
get  it  well  into  our  being;  and  one  of  the  first  tilings  to  do, 
in  order  to  have  it  at  all  times  and  in  all  trials,  is  to  get  rid 
of  the  notion  that  it  is  only  a  phj'sical  quality,  and  to 
understand  that  it  can  be  won  by  the  \\ill  when  the  will 
toward  it  is  directed  by  noble  motives  in  accordance  with 
the  claims  on  us  of  Right  and  Love. 

There  are  sure  to  be  hours  in  Ufe  when  the  whole  success 
of  all  whom  we  lead — it  matters  little  whether  we  only 
lead  our  own  household  or  a  whole  army— rests  on  our 
facing  danger  boldly.  We  must  accustom  ourselves  to 
realize  that;   and  then  the  importance  of  our  courage  to 

>i* 149 'i* 

II 


Prag^rs  for  Q^aha^ 


others  must  so  dwell  upon  our  minds  that,  when  the  hour 
of  danger  comes,  we  shall  be  able,  from  the  force  of  the 
high  motive  of  our  courage  being  the  salvation  of  others, 
to  master  our  trembhng  nerves,  if  we  are  of  that  tempera- 
ment; to  divide,  as  it  were,  our  soul  from  our  body;  and 
to  conquer  the  nervous  thrill  of  the  body  by  the  high 
passion  of  the  soul. 

You  remember  the  story  told  of  Henri  IV. ;  it  is  a  good 
illustration.  He  was  naturally  afraid  in  danger,  and  when 
he  first  went  into  battle  at  the  siege  of  Cahors  his  body 
shook  aU  over  with  fear.  Then  he  was  heard  to  say :  "Vile 
carcass!  thou  tremblest.  But  thou  wouldst  tremble  ten 
times  more  if  thou  knewest  where  I  am  going  to  take  thee." 
And  he  rushed  forward  twenty  yards  ahead  of  his  men, 
and  his  ax  was  the  first  to  strike  the  gates.  Lift  the  soul 
above  the  body;   it  is  the  secret  of  courage. 

Stopford  a.  Brooke. 


150 


Pragfra  far  ©otiay 


LXXV.     FOR  TRUST   IN   GOD'S   GUIDANCE 

OLORD,  by  all  Thy  dealings  with  me,  whether 
of  joy  or  pain,  of  light  or  darkness,  let   me 
be  brought  to  Thee. 

Let  me  value  no  treatment  of  Thy  grace  simply 
because  it  makes  me  happy  or  because  it  makes  me 
sad,  because  it  gives  or  denies  me  what  I  want; 
but  may  all  that  Thou  sendest  me  bring  me  to 
Thee,  that,  knowing  Thy  perfectness,  I  may  be  sure 
in  every  disappointment  that  Thou  art  still  loving 
me,  and  in  every  darkness  that  Thou  art  still  en- 
lightening me,  and  in  every  enforced  idleness  that 
Thou  art  still  using  me — yea,  in  every  death  that 
Thou  art  giving  me  life,  as  in  His  death  Thou  didst 
give  life  to  Thy  Son,  our  Saviour,  Jesus  Christ.  Amen. 

Meditation:    The  blessing  of  grief  is  won  by  trust. 

TO  cui'se  grief  is  easier  than  to  bless  it,  but  to  do  so 
is  to  f^ill  back  into  the  point  of  view  of  the  earthly, 
the  carnal,  the  natural  man.  By  wliat  has  Christianity 
subdued  the  world  if  not  by  the  apotheosis  of  grief,  by  its 
marvelous  transmutation  of  suffering  into  triumph,  of  the 
crown  of  thorns  into  the  crown  of  glory,  and  of  a  gibl^et 
into  a  symbol  of  salvation?  What  docs  the  apotlicosis  of 
the  cross  mean,  if  not  the  death  of  death,  the  defeat  of 
sin,  the  beatifi(;ation  of  martyrdom,  the  raising  to  the  skies 
of  voluntary  sacrifice,  the  defiance  of  pain? 

^  151  ^ 


^  Pray^ra  for  ©oliay  ^ 

O  Death,  where  is  thy  sting? 
O  Grave,  where  is  thy  victory? 

By  long  brooding  over  this  theme — the  agony  of  the 
just,  peace  in  the  midst  of  agony,  and  the  heavenly  beauty 
of  such  peace — humanity  came  to  imderstand  that  a  new 
religion  was  born — a  new  mode,  that  is  to  say,  of  explain- 
ing hfe  and  of  imderstanding  suffering. 

Suffering  was  a  curse  from  which  man  fled;  now  it  be- 
comes a  purification  of  the  soul,  a  sacred  trial  sent  by 
eternal  love,  a  divine  dispensation  meant  to  sanctify  and 
ennoble  us,  an  acceptable  aid  to  faith,  a  strange  initiation 
into  happiness. 

Oh,  power  of  belief!  All  remains  the  same,  and  yet  all 
is  changed.  A  new  certitude  arises  to  deny  the  apparent 
and  the  tangible;  it  pierces  through  the  mysteiy  of  things; 
it  places  an  invisible  Father  beliind  visible  nature;  it  shows 
us  joy  shining  through  tears,  and  makes  of  pain  the  begin- 
ning of  joy. 

Crucify  the  rebellious  self,  mortify  yourself  wholly,  give 
up  all  to  God,  and  the  peace  which  is  not  of  tliis  world 
Avill  descend  upon  you.  For  eighteen  centuries  no  grander 
word  has  been  spoken;  and  although  Himianity  is  forever 
seeking  after  a  more  exact  and  complete  application  of 
justice,  yet  her  secret  faith  is  not  in  justice,  but  in  pardon, 
for  pardon  alone  conciUates  the  spotless  pmity  of  perfec- 
tion with  the  infinite  pity  due  to  weakness — that  is  to  say, 
it  alone  preserves  and  defends  the  idea  of  holiness,  while  it 
allows  full  scope  to  that  of  love. 

Henri-Frederic  Amiel. 


^  152 


Pragfra  for  uIobai| 


LXXVI.  FOR  COURAGE  IN  BEREAVEMENT 

OGOD,  Thou  bindest  me  to  life  by  sweet, 
tender  ties — father,  mother,  brother,  sister, 
husband,  wife,  son,  daughter,  lover,  friend.  All 
the  tendrils  of  my  heart  are  twined  around  them; 
all  my  purposes  revolve  about  them;  all  my  success 
is  measured  by  their  joy. 

Thou  takest  them  away.  Then  I  am  tempted 
to  withdraw  altogether  from  the  world,  in  hopeless 
dejection,  a  burden  to  myself  and  a  sorrow  to  my 
remaining  friends,  or  hide  myself  in  foreign  lands,  or 
plunge  madly  into  meaningless  activities,  vainly  striv- 
ing to  run  away  from  the  grief  I  can  never  escape. 

Make  me  strong  to  resist  this  cowardice.  Forbid 
that  I  should  idly  accept  my  dear  one's  mortality. 
In  the  hour  of  sore  bereavement  may  I  summon  the 
great  resources  of  the  soul — memory,  imagination, 
faith,  hope,  love. 

May  I  gratefully  recall  all  that  my  beloved  one 
was  to  me;  all  that  he  stood  for  in  the  world.  May 
I  live  even  more  constantly  in  the  companionship 
of  his  spirit;  may  I  carry  out  in  the  old  spheres  in 
which  we  together  moved,  so  much  of  his  purpose 
as  I  can.  May  I  be  kind  to  the  friends  he  loved; 
devoted  to  the  community  in  which  he  lived;  loyal 
to  the  causes  which  he  served.  Thus  in  my  life 
may  he  still  live  on,  to  my  own  comfort,  and  the 
welfare  of  the  world.     Amen. 

^  153  ^ 


^  Prayers  for  ©oiiag  ^ 

Meditation:    Victory  over  death  is  both  a  human  task  and  a 
divine  gift. 

IT  is  most  needful  to  recollect  that  the  victory  is  a  gift. 
I  do  not  mean  merely  that  the  final  victory  over  the 
grave  is  a  gift.  That,  too,  we  may  often  forget.  We  may 
beheve  that  we  shall  achieve  om*  immortal  happiness  by 
some  splendid  exertions  or  faith  of  ours.  We  may  think 
that  it  is  to  be  won  by  a  strife  with  the  Divine  Will,  not  by 
trust  in  it  and  submission  to  it.  And  we  shall  easily  fall 
into  this  mistake  if  we  do  not  look  upon  every  preparatory 
victory  of  life  over  death  as  a  gift  of  God. 

Each  morning  that  we  wake  out  of  sleep,  each  power 
that  we  are  able  to  exert  over  brute  matter,  each  energj'- 
of  the  body,  each  return  of  health  after  sickness,  each  hard 
discoverj^,  each  power  which  the  will  exerts  over  the  in- 
cUnations  of  oux  own  flesh,  each  act  of  just  government 
over  other  men,  each  influence  we  are  able  to  put  forth 
for  making  other  men  more  wise  or  more  free — of  this  we 
must  say,  "God  giveth  it";    this  we  must  accept  as  the 

1  fruit  and  manifestation  of  His  wiU,  as  the  pledge  and  fore- 

i  taste  of  a  final  victory. 

Beheve  it  to  be  so,  young  man,  rejoicing  in  the  days  of 
thy  youth,  in  the  fullness  and  fresliness  of  life;  beheve  it 
to  be  so,  weary  pilgrim,  struggling  under  the  load  of  daily 
and  increasing  pain;  God  in  each  case  is  testifjdng,  if  thou 
mlt  understand  the  testimony,  that  life  in  thee  is  stronger 
than  death,  that  life. in  thee  shall  overcome  death. 

Frederick  Denison  Maurice. 

^  154  *i* 


Prayers  for  (Hobag 


LXXVII.      FOR    DIVINE    HELP    IN    EVERY 
EMERGENCY 

THOU  art  the  breath  of  my  soul,  O  Beloved! 
How  can  I  forget  Thee  even  for  an  hour? 
My  incurable  helplessness  points  to  Thee.  The 
unaccountable  strength  in  my  nature  also  points 
to  Thee. 

If  I  am  alone,  Thou  art  at  my  side.  And,  when 
many  surround  me,  lo!  Thou  art  there.  Rob  Thou 
me  of  my  hopelessness  and  helplessness,  and  be 
all  in  all  to  me. 

Real  and  faithful  God,  let  me  put  my  trust  in 
Thee.  Give  me  the  rescue  of  Thy  assurance  amid 
these  wild  waters  of  the  world.  In  the  serene  light 
of  Thy  countenance  let  all  despondency  flee. 

The  past  bears  infinite  testimony  to  the  truth  of 
Thy  providence.  Thou  reservest  Thyself  for  me 
in  the  future.  I  do  but  know  that  Thou  art  with 
me  in  the  present.  In  that  consciousness  all  anx- 
iety is  set  at  rest.     Amen. 

Meditation:     Not  self-denial,  but  self-devotion,  is  the  secret 
of  the  higher  life. 

THE  idea  of  self-sacrifice  is  often  conceived  too  barely, 
too  negatively.  Mere  self-abnegation  is  a  fruitless 
thing  except  when  it  is  inspired  by  self-devotion.  These 
are  two  sides,  as  it  were,  of  the  one  "li\'ing  sacrifice,"  the 

•^  155  *i* 


Prag^ra  for  Sobag 


"reasonable  service"  of  which  we  speak  in  the  language  of 
St.  Paul. 

Just  as  the  death  of  Christ  cannot  with  any  truth  be 
separated  from  His  hfe,  of  which  it  is  the  immediate  con- 
summation, both  together  making  the  fulfilment  of  the 
purpose  for  which  He  came  into  the  world — "to  do  thy 
will,  0  God" — ^so  in  the  aim  and  aspiration  of  the  Christian 
there  are  inseparably  blended  the  two  aspects  of  self- 
devotion  and  consequent  self-denial. 
And  the  root  principle  of  both  is  the  Divine  Love, 
"Though  I  give  all  my  goods  to  feed  the  poor,  and  though 
I  give  my  body  to  be  burned  and  have  not  charity,  I  am 
nothing."  Here  is  the  main  defect  which  we  have  cause  to 
movuTi,  and  which  we  pray  for  grace  to  overcome,  the  feeble- 
ness and  poverty  of  the  central  motive,  from  which  all  else 
should  spring. 

If  we  only  realize  more  fully  in  our  hearts  the  mercies 
that  surroimd  us,  the  loving  guidance  that  has  brought  us 
hitherto,  the  support  of  the  everlasting  arms,  the  blessings 
of  human  friendsliips  and  affection,  surely  we  should  go 
forth  as  "hght  as  carrier-birds  in  air,"  ready  to  encounter 
gladly  any  lofrs,  any  disappointment,  any  remmciation,  if 
only  we  may  do  something  to  serve  our  brethren  and  to 
fill  up  in  oiu"  measure  some  part  of  what  is  still  wanting 
(and  how  such  is  wanting!)  of  the  complete  hiunanity 
which  was  prefigured  in  Christ.  Let  us  then  make  self- 
devotion  our  ideal,  and  let  self-sacrifice  follow  if  it  must. 

Lewis  Campbell. 


>h  156 


Jpra^frH  far  Q^oha^ 


LXXVIII.      IN  BEHALF  OF  A  FRIEND  WHO 
HAS  PASSED   INTO   THE   UNSEEN 

OGOD,  the  God  of  spirit  and  of  all  flesh,  in 
whose  embrace  all  creatures  live,  in  whatsoever 
world  or  condition  they  be,  I  beseech  Thee  for  him 
whose  name  and  dwelling-place  and  every  need 
Thou  knowest.  Lord,  vouchsafe  him  light  and  rest, 
peace  and  refreshment,  joy  and  consolation,  in 
Paradise,  in  the  companionship  of  saints,  in  the 
presence  of  Christ,  in  the  ample  folds  of  Thy  great 
love. 

Grant  that  his  life  (so  troubled  here)  may  unfold 
itself  in  Thy  sight,  and  find  a  sweet  employment  in 
the  spacious  fields  of  eternity.  If  he  hath  ever 
been  hurt  or  maimed  by  any  unhappy  word  or  deed 
of  mine,  I  pray  Thee  of  Thy  great  pity  to  heal  and 
restore  him,  that  he  may  serve  Thee  without  hin- 
drance. 

Tell  him,  O  gracious  Lord,  if  it  may  be,  how 
much  I  love  him  and  miss  him  and  long  to  see  him 
again;  and,  if  there  be  ways  in  which  he  may  come, 
vouchsafe  him  to  me  as  a  guide  and  guard,  and  grant 
me  a  sense  of  his  nearness,  in  such  degree  as  Thy 
laws  permit. 

If  in  aught  I  can  minister  to  his  peace,  be  pleased 
of  Thy  love  to  let  this  be;  and  mercifully  keep  me 
from  every  act  which  may  deprive  me  of  the  sight 
of  him  as  soon  as  our  trial-time  is  over,  or  mar  the 

*i<  157  ^ 


Prag^ra  for  ©flliag 


fullness  of  our  joy  when  the  end  of  the  days  hath 
come. 

Pardon,  O  gracious  Lord  and  Father,  whatsoever 
is  amiss  in  this  my  prayer,  and  let  Thy  will  be  done; 
for  my  will  is  blind  and  erring,  but  Thine  is  able 
to  do  exceeding,  abundantly  above  all  that  we  ask 
or  think;    through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord.     Amen. 

Meditation:    The  message  of  psychical  research  confirms  the 
'premonitions  of  philosopher  and  saint. 

FIRST,  there  is  a  future  life.  That  alone  is  certainly 
an  assurance  of  tremendous  moment.  It  is  the  cen- 
tral question,  the  one  great,  dominating  query,  definitely 
answered.  We  know  little  of  the  conditions  of  that  life. 
Perhaps  the  patience  of  the  investigator  will  some  time 
be  rewarded  with  exact  knowledge  of  these  conditions; 
there  is  ground  for  optimism. 

As  yet,  however,  in  many  respects  the  pictures  given  of 
the  life  beyond  are  not  concordant,  and  for  the  present 
it  is  far  better  to  suspend  our  judgment  in  regard  to  con- 
ditions there. 

We  get  our  just  deserts.  Each  person,  remaining  after 
death  essentially  himseK,  gravitates  without  any  formal 
judgment  to  the  level  appropriate  to  the  stage  of  moral 
development  attained  in  life,  and  has  an  endless  opportimity 
to  progress  and  achieve.  The  opportimity  and  the  struggle 
for  self -improvement  persist  along  with  life. 

Arthuk  Whitzel. 


158 


>i*  PrayprH  for   (UntJay  4^ 

LXXIX.     FOR    DIVINE    INSTRUCTION 

OLORD  GOD  ALMIGHTY,  Who  out  of  Thy 
treasure  bringest  things  new  and  old  for  man's 
instruction,  let  nature  become  to  us  a  parable  of 
grace. 

By  Thy  lightnings  enlighten  us  and  consume  us 
not;  by  Thy  thunders  awe  us  without  terror;  sit 
we  loose  to  that  earth  which  may  quake  and  must 
depart,  shelter  Thou  us  in  a  peaceable  habitation 
when  it  shall  hail  coming  down  on  the  forest,  and 
this  world  shall  be  low  in  a  low  place. 

Let  voices  of  the  past  persuade  us  to  repentance 
and  faith,  of  the  present  to  amendment  and  hope, 
of  the  revealed  future  to  holiness  and  charity;  yea, 
let  all  voices  persuade  us  to  charity.  Speak,  Lord, 
for  Thy  servant  heareth.  Grant  us  grace  to  hear, 
though  both  our  ears  tingle,  and  to  obey,  though 
taking  our  life  in  our  hand;  for  His  sake,  Whose 
merit  exceeds  our  demerit,  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord. 
Amen. 

Meditation:   The  world  is  a  manifestation  of  God,  but  we  often 
falsify  what  it  would  say  to  us. 

DOES  a  man  ask  what  this  world  is,  and  why  man  is 
placed  in  it? 
It  was  that  the  invisible  things  of  Him  from  tlie  creation 
of  the  world  might  be  clearly  seen.     Have  we  ever  .«tood 


>i*  PrayfrH  for  ®nbay  ^h 

beneath  the  solemn  vault  of  heaven,  when  the  stars  were 
looking  down  in  their  silent  splendor,  and  not  felt  an  over- 
powering sense  of  His  eternity?  When  the  white  lightning 
has  quivered  in  the  sky,  has  that  told  us  nothing  of  power, 
or  only  something  of  electricity? 

Rocks  and  mountains,  are  they  here  to  give  us  the  idea 
of  material  massiveness,  or  to  reveal  the  conception  of 
the  strength  of  Israel?  When  we  take  up  the  page  of  past 
history  and  read  that  wrong  never  prospered  long,  but  the 
nations  have  drunk  one  after  another  the  cup  of  terrible 
retribution,  can  we  dismiss  all  that  as  philosophy  of  his- 
tory, or  shall  we  say  that  through  blood  and  war  and  deso- 
lation we  trace  the  footsteps  of  a  presiding  God,  and  find 
evidence  that  there  sits  at  the  hehn  of  this  world's  affairs 
a  strict,  rigorous,  and  most  terrible  justice? 

To  the  eye  that  can  see,  to  the  heart  that  is  not  paralyzed, 
God  is  here.  The  warning  which  the  Bible  utters  against 
the  things  of  this  world  bring  no  charge  against  the  glori- 
ous world  itself.  The  world  is  the  glass  tlu"ough  which  we 
see  the  Maker.  But  what  men  do  is  this:  They  put  the 
dull  quicksilver  of  their  own  selfishness  behind  the  glass, 
and  so  it  becomes  not  the  transparent  medium  through 
which  God  shines,  but  the  dead  opaque  which  reflects  back 
themselves.  Instead  of  lying  with  open  eye  and  heart 
to  receive,  we  project  ourselves  upon  the  world  and  give. 

So  it  gives  us  back  our  own  false  feelings  and  nature. 
Therefore  it  brings  forth  thorns  and  thistles;  therefore 
it  grows  weeds — weeds  to  us;  therefore  the  lightning 
burns  with  wrath  and  the  thunder  mutters  vengeance. 

Frederick  W.  Robertson. 

*i^  160  ^ 


Prayrra  fnr  ©oiiag 


LXXX.     IN   MEMORY   OF   A   FRIEND  WHO 
OBEYED    HIS    COUNTRY'S    CALL^ 

LORD  of  the  living  and  the  dead,  infinite  Spirit 
-^  Whose  love  and  goodness  we  adore,  we  lift  a 
voice  of  sorrow  and  of  hope  to  Thee.  Our  hearts 
are  sad  because  one  whom  we  love  has  been  taken 
from  us.  Yet,  mingled  with  our  grief  is  gratitude, 
hope,  and  trust.  As  we  stand  in  the  presence  of  our 
dead  we  know  that  it  is  not  defeat,  but  victory;  that 
his  life  has  not  set  in  a  night  of  pain  and  gloom, 
but  amid  the  splendors  of  Thy  everlasting  day. 

We  bless  and  glorify  Thy  holy  name  for  the 
grace  which  Thou  didst  vouchsafe  to  him  who  has 
passed  into  Thy  nearer  presence.  We  rejoice  amid 
our  sorrow  that  it  was  given  to  him  to  make  the 
great  sacrifice,  to  offer  his  life  on  the  altar  of  his 
country's  need.  "Greater  love  hath  no  man  than 
this,  that  a  man  lay  down  his  life  for  his  friends." 
We  thank  Thee  that  Thou  hast  accepted  his  sacri- 
fice, with  Thy  gracious  word,  "Well  done,  good  and 
faithful  servant." 

'  This  prayer  was  writton  for  the  momorial  service  of  Ezra 
Charles  Fitch,  Jr.,  of  the  Fifth  Royal  Highlanders  Black  Watch 
(Canada),  who  died  October  13,  1<)17.  Mr.  Fitch,  on  liis 
country's  entry  into  the  war,  enlisted  in  a  Canadian  regiment, 
as  he  had  passed  the  age  limit  prescribed  by  the  American  regu- 
lations. While  discharging  military  duty  he  was  stricken  with 
pneumonia,  which  ended  fatally.  lie  laid  do.vn  his  life  for  his 
country  as  really  as  those  who  fall  on  the  ru.ng-line. 

^  161  '■h 


5Pray?r0  for  ®oliay 


For  us  who  sorrow  we  pray.  Let  our  grief  cleanse 
us  and  make  us  free;  let  it  be  "strong  to  consume 
small  troubles,  to  commend  great  thoughts,  thoughts 
lasting  to  the  end." 

May  it  be  that  as  our  friend  has  conquered  death 
and  the  fear  of  death,  we  too  may  rise  to  the  height 
of  his  great  deed  and  breathe  the  air  of  immortality, 
and  know  that  in  Thy  good  time  hearts  that  are 
sundered  here  shall  be  reunited  in  the  country  of 
their  hopes,  where  Thou  shalt  make  us  glad  in 
Thine  abundant  answer  to  every  bygone  prayer. 
If  indeed  Thou  dost  put  this  mighty  thought  within 
us,  then  shall  we  purify  ourselves  from  every  wrong 
and  strengthen  ourselves  for  every  duty. 

Unto  Thee,  God  and  Father  of  us  all,  we  ascribe 
glory  and  praise  forever  and  ever.     Amen. 

Meditation:   A  soldier  in  the  terrors  of  battle  may  be  governed 
by  the  highest  motives. 

WITHOUT  the  least  desire  to  defend  or  encourage 
war,  we  may  recognize  that  in  the  life  of  the  soldier 
there  are  many  noble  elements. 

For  he  may  be  thinking,  not  how  to  destroy,  but  how 
to  save;  he  may  be  eager  to  fight,  but  even  more  eager  to 
make  peace.  He  may  unite  the  resolve  of  the  warrior 
with  the  tenderness  of  a  child;  when  he  has  most  to 
care  for  in  liis  life,  he  wiU  be  most  ready  to  resign  all  for 
his  country's  sake. 

Benjamin  Jowett. 

*i*  162  ^ 


PragFra  for  (Untiag 


LXXXI.     FOR   INTERNATIONAL   PEACE 

ALMIGHTY  GOD,  Ruler  of  the  nations,  we 
k-  entreat  Thee  in  this  hour  of  the  world's  an- 
guish to  have  pity  upon  us  and  upon  all  men. 
Thy  children  faint  for  fear  and  for  expectation  of 
the  things  which  are  coming  on  the  earth. 

In  Thee  is  our  only  hope.  Move  Thou  upon  the 
wills  of  men  and  constrain  the  peoples  in  the  paths 
of  unity  and  peace.  Hast  Thou  not  called  us  to 
share  with  Thee  in  the  order  and  government  of 
the  world?  Grant  us  wisdom,  O  Lord,  that  we  may 
discern  the  causes  of  conflict,  the  things  that  make 
for  international  hate  and  jealousy. 

We  know  that  only  as  we  yield  ourselves  as 
instruments  of  peace,  can  peace  come  to  our 
stricken  earth. 

Quicken  our  consciences  that  we  may  feel  the 
sin  and  shame  of  war.  Inspire  us  with  courage  and 
faith  that  we  may  lift  up  our  voices  against  private 
greed,  social  injustice,  the  aggression  of  the  strong 
on  the  weak,  and  whatsoever  else  works  enmity 
between  man  and  man,  class  and  class,  nation  and 
nation.  Create  within  us  a  passion  for  the  reign 
of  righteousness,  the  spread  of  brotherhood  and 
good-will  among  the  nations,  so  that  we  may  hasten 
the  fulfilment  of  Thine  ancient  word,  "Nation  shall 
not  lift  up  sword  against  nation,  neither  shall  they 
learn  war  any  more."     Amen. 

*i*  163  ^ 


l^m^evB  tor  QJoiag 


Meditation:    A  false  and  a  true  motive  for  condemning  war. 

WARS  may  be  condemned  from  two  points  of  view. 
From  the  one,  every  individual  human  being  is 
counted  so  holy  that  no  institution,  no  social  group,  no 
principle  or  ideal,  is  worth  shedding  any  one's  blood  for. 
This  attitude  of  mind  found  its  most  influential  protagonist 
in  Count  Tolstoi.  Wars  are  wrong  because  they  involve 
sacrifice  of  human  lives;  it  is  nations  as  political  units 
that  wage  war,  and  therefore  all  governments  are  at  enmity 
with  men. 

The  leaders  of  all  the  so-called  international  peace  move- 
ments continually  defend  their  cause  from  this  point  of 
view.  In  so  far  they  condemn  patriotism  as  a  vice,  and  they 
would  sacrifice  the  idealism  of  nations  to  the  interests  of 
peace. 

There  is  another  point  of  view  from  which  war  can  and 
should  be  condemned.  A  true  peace  movement  would  be 
nationalistic.  It  would  find  out  what  organized  interests 
within  each  nation  make  for  war;  it  woidd  insist  that  all 
governments  become  champions  of  economic  justice  the 
world  over,  because  private  greed  is  the  war  god.  There  is 
not  too  much  patriotism,  but  too  little  of  the  right  sort. 

A  true  peace  movement  would  educate  the  masses  of 
the  people,  and  especially  the  statesmen  and  politicians 
and  voters  of  all  countries,  in  the  higher  functions  of  nations. 

Stanton  Coit. 


1G4 


J^rapra  for  Qlobag 


LXXXII.     THANKSGIVING  FOR  THE  REVE- 
LATION  OF   A   FUTURE   LIFE 

THOUGH  fidelity  of  soul  can  do  much  to  rob 
the  grave  of  its  victory,  still,  I  too  must  soon 
follow  the  dear  ones  gone  before.  For  them  and 
for  myself  I  crave  more  than  a  transient  survival 
in  loyal  hearts  who  take  up  and  carry  on  our  work. 
For  this  true  immortality  I  turn  in  entire  con- 
fidence to  Thee.  I  know  not  how,  out  of  a  world 
Which  gave  no  evidence  of  anything  but  matter 
fend  force.  Thou  hast  called  forth  the  life  and  love 
*vhich  are  its  crowning  ornaments.  I  know  no  more 
^nd  no  less  of  how  Thou  canst  lead  these  broken 
lives  and  severed  loves  of  ours  to  the  fulfilment 
they  demand.  But  all  I  know  of  love  in  myself, 
all  I  see  of  it  in  human  hearts,  makes  me  confident 
that  Thou  wiliest  this  fulfilment. 

I  thank  Thee  for  reported  visions  of  departed 
ones;  yet  I  would  not  lean  on  these  material  props 
more  weight  than  they  will  bear.  My  confidence 
is  in  Thee,  as  Thou  art  revealed  in  my  own  soul, 
in  humanity  at  its  best,  and  in  Jesus  Christ;  not 
in  doubtful  traditions  or  alleged  manifestations. 

As  Thou  hast  made  this  life  of  ours  on  earth  a 
closed  circle,  free  from  violent  interruptions,  may  I 
accept  it  as  the  call  to  concentrate  my  little  strength, 
during  my  brief  sojourn,  on  life  and  love  and  duty 

►t-  165  *h 


^  Prayers  for  ®oiag  *h 

as  I  find  them  here;  trusting  my  beloved  and  my- 
self entirely  to  Thy  power,  Thy  wisdom,  and  Thy 
love  for  future  growth  in  character  and  progress 
in  blessedness.     Amen. 


Meditation:     A  scientist  makes  confession  of  his  belief  in 

immortality. 

I  AM  convinced  of  continued  existence,  on  the  other 
side  of  death,  as  I  am  of  existence  here.  It  may  be  said, 
you  cannot  be  as  sure  as  you  are  of  sensory  experience. 
I  say  I  can.  A  physicist  is  never  Umited  to  direct  sensory 
impressions,  he  has  to  deal  with  a  multitude  of  concep- 
tions and  things  for  which  he  has  no  physical  organ;  the 
theories  of  electricity,  of  magnetism,  of  chemical  affinity, 
of  cohesion,  aye,  and  the  apprehension  of  the  ether  itself, 
lead  him  into  regions  where  sight  and  hearing  and  touch 
are  impotent  as  direct  witnesses. 

In  such  regions  everytliing  has  to  be  interpreted  in  terms 
of  the  insensible,  the  apparently  unsubstantial,  and  in  a 
definite  sense  the  imaginary. 

That  being  so,  I  shall  go  further  to  say  that  I  am  reason- 
ably convinced  of  the  existence  of  grades  of  being,  not 
only  lower  in  the  scale  than  man,  but  higher  also,  grades 
of  every  order  of  magnitude  from  zero  to  infinity,  and  I 
know  by  experience  that  among  these  beings  are  some  who 
care  for  and  help  and  guide  humanity,  not  disdaining  to 
enter  even  into  what  must  seem  petty  details,  if  by  so 
doing  they  can  assist  souls  striving  on  their  upward  course. 

Sir  Oliver  Lodge. 

^  166  ^ 


JPragrrs  for  umiag 


LXXXIII.      A   PRAYER    OF    INTERCESSION 
FOR   THE   WORLD 

ENLIGHTEN,  O  God,  this  erring,  groping  world, 
that  ignorance  and  sin,  oppression  and  injus- 
tice, misery  and  crime,  strife  and  war,  and  all  the 
deeds  of  darkness,  may  at  length  be  vanquished 
and  cease  to  hide  Thee  from  Thy  children's  eyes; 
that  earth  and  heaven  may  be  linked  together  in 
every  soul,  making  this  life  more  beautiful,  and  that 
Death  may  be  welcomed  as  Thy  heavenly  messenger 
on  whose  wings  we  are  borne  to  the  completion 
of  our  affections  and  aspiratio'ns  here  in  a  glorious 
eternity  with  Thee.     Amen. 

Meditation:     A  prophetic  warning  of  the  doom  pronounced 
against  a  false  civilization. 

)Y  themselves  moral  reasons  are  never  enough  to 
justify  a  prediction  of  speedj^  doom  upon  any  system 
or  society.  None  of  the  prophets  began  to  foretell  the  fall 
of  Israel  till  they  read,  with  keener  eyes  than  tlieir  con- 
temporaries, the  signs  of  it  in  current  liistory.  And  this, 
I  take  it,  was  the  point  which  made  a  notable  difference 
between  them  and  one  wlio,  like  them,  scourged  the  social 
wrongs  of  Ms  civihzation,  yet  never  spoke  a  word  of  its 
faU. 

Juvenal  nowhere  calls  do^vn  judgments,   except   upon 
individuals.    In  his  time  tliere  wei'c  no  .signs  of  the  decline 

^  167  ^ 


'i'  l^tu^nB  for  ©ohag  ^i* 

of  the  empire,  even  though,  as  he  marks,  there  was  a  flight 
from  the  capital  of  the  virtue  which  was  to  keep  the  empire 
alive.  But  the  prophets  had  pohtical  proof  of  the  nearness 
of  God's  judgment,  and  they  spoke  in  the  power  of  its  coin- 
cidence with  the  moral  corruption  of  their  people.  .  .  . 

And  it  was  not  only  for  its  suddenness  that  the  apostles 
said  the  day  of  the  Lord  shall  come  as  a  thief,  but  also 
because  of  its  methods.  For  over  and  over  again  has  doom 
been  pronounced,  and  pronounced  truly,  by  men  who  in 
the  eyes  of  ci\dHzation  were  criminals  and  monsters. 

Now,  apply  these  principles  to  the  question  of  ourselves. 
It  will  scarcely  be  denied  that  our  civihzation  tolerates,  and 
in  part  lives  by,  the  existence  of  vices  wlxich,  as  we  all  ad- 
mit, ruined  the  ancient  empires.  Are  the  political  possibili- 
ties of  overthrow  also  present?  That  there  exist  among  us 
means  of  new  historic  convulsions  is  a  visit  upon  you  of  your 
iniquities.  Nothing  is  too  costly  for  justice,  and  God  finds 
some  other  way  of  conserving  the  real  results  of  the  past. 

Again,  it  is  a  coroUarj'  of  all  this,  that  the  sentence  upon 
civihzation  must  often  seem  to  come  by  voices  that  are 
insane,  and  its  execution  bj^  means  that  are  criminal.  .  .  . 

When  we  see  the  jealousies  of  the  Christian  peoples 
and  their  enormous  preparations  for  battle,  the  arsenals 
of  Europe  which  a  few  sparks  may  Blow  up,  the  milhons 
of  soldiers  one  man's  word  may  mobihze;  we  must  acknowl- 
edge the  existence  of  forces  that  threaten  the  very  vigor 
and  the  progress  of  Civilization  herself. 

George  Adam  Smith. 

[Note. — The  foregoing  was  written  some  seventeen  years 
before  the  outbreak  of  the  Great  War.] 

*i*  168  >i* 


"i^ j^raggrfl  for  (Uobag ;P 

LXXXIV.     A   PRAYER   FOR   OUR   ENEMIES 

OGOD,  to  Whom  all  nations  are  dear,  accom- 
plishing Thy  will  in  divers  ways:  Keep  us, 
we  pray  Thee,  to  love  our  enemies  and  do  good  to 
them  that  hate  us.  Have  mercy  upon  them  even  as 
we  ask  mercy  for  ourselves.  Grant  to  them  and  to 
us  an  enlightened  mind,  a  zeal  for  justice,  a  sincere 
desire  to  set  aside  all  pride  and  vain  ambition  that 
they  and  we  may  unite  in  creating  a  new  and  better 
order  wherein  as  brethren  reconciled  through  Thy 
Son  we  may  rejoice  in  the  beauty  of  righteousness 
and  peace. 

Turn  their  hearts  to  Thee;  forgive  the  wrongs  that 
men  have  suffered  at  their  hands;  quicken  their 
consciences  with  a  vision  of  the  true  destiny  to 
which  Thou  hast  called  them  in  fellowship  and 
friendship  with  all  the  peoples  of  the  earth. 

So  move  upon  their  wills  and  ours  that  all  hatred 
and  malice  may  die  and  that  the  spirit  of  love  may 
be  bom  anew  in  them  and  in  us.  And  these  precious 
gifts  we  ask  in  the  name  of  Him  who  is  the  Brother 
and  Saviour  of  all  Jesus  Christ,  Thy  Son,  our  Lord. 
Amen. 

Meditation:     While  resisting  evil  loe  must  maintain  a  vill 
of  good  toward  the  evil-doer. 

IT  is  not  resistance  to  evil  that  Christ's  words   forhid; 
they  describe  rather   the   attitude   toward    the  wrong- 
doer that  is  demanded  by  the  highest   ni<)r;ilit.\-.   ...  It 

^  169  ^ 


Pragrra  tat  Sobag 


is  the  attitude  of  retaliation  or  revenge  that  is  forbidden 
— the  attitude  of  resisting  the  evil-doer  by  retaliating  upon 
himself  the  evil  he  has  done.  .  .  .  Paul  has  caught  the  spirit 
of  His  Master's  teaching  in  the  noble  language  in  which 
he  enjoins  the  Roman  Christians  not  to  recompense  evil 
by  evil,  but  to  overcome  evil  with  good.  He  sees  that  we 
do  not  overcome  evil  by  returning  it  upon  the  evil-doer; 
by  such  a  return  we  rather  allow  the  evdl  to  overcome  our- 
selves. For  retaliation  or  revenge  is  the  expression  of  an 
evil  will.  It  means,  therefore,  that  evil  is  being  perpetu- 
ated, has  won  a  triumph,  instead  of  being  overcome; 
and  the  hereditary  feuds  of  every  society  m  which  revenge 
has  been  allowed,  furnish  innumerable  tragic  proofs  of  this 
effect.  Retaliation  is  thus  directly  antagonistic  to  the 
supreme  principle  of  morality. 

.  .  .  But  there  is  a  limit  even  to  righteous  personal  endur- 
ance. If  a  man  of  fair  physical  vigor  is  standing  by  while 
an  outrage  is  being  perpetrated  on  a  child,  or  a  woman,  or 
a  feeble  man,  and  if  he  declines  to  interfere  when  he  could 
prevent  the  wrong  by  his  superior  strength,  if  even  he  is 
not  willing  to  stake  his  personal  safety  on  the  ventm-e,  it  is 
hard  to  comprehend  any  casuistical  dialectic  which  can 
absolve  him  from  participation  in  the  wrong.  But  if  such 
resistance  to  evil  is  allowed  and  even  demanded  of  the  in- 
dividual, much  more  does  it  come  within  the  rights  and 
obligations  of  an  organized  community  acting  in  accordance 
with  a  reasonable  constitution  and  reasonable  laws. 

J.  C.  Murray. 


^  170 


^  Pray^ra  for  en^aji  *i* 

LXXXV.     A   PRAYER    FOR    ONE   WHO   HAS 
PASSED   OVER 

INFINITE  Father-Spirit,  in  Whom  all  whom  we 
call  "dead"  do  live,  I  commend  to  Thy  Fatherly- 
love  and  care  one  dear  to  me  whom  Thou  hast  called 
out  of  the  body  into  Higher  life  and  experience. 
Grant  that  in  that  Sphere  of  Light  and  advance- 
ment all  that  is  good  and  noble  in  him  may  be  ex- 
panded and  developed.  Grant  that  anything  weak 
and  imperfect  in  him  may  be  eliminated.  Fill  him 
with  Thy  Spirit  that  he  may  grow  to  full  knowledge 
and  love  of  Thee  until  he  shall  be  made  perfect, 
and  keep  him  in  close  communion  with  me,  until, 
in  Thine  own  way  and  time,  we  are  reunited.  This 
I  ask  in  the  Name  of  Thy  Perfect  Manifestor, 
Jesus  Christ  our  Lord.     Amen. 

Meditation;    Selfish   and  passionate   thoughts   shut  us  out 
from  the  unseen  world. 

THERE  is  not  one  of  us  who  does  not  perceive  within 
himself  good  and  evil,  heaven  and  hell,  self  and  Clirist, 
flesh  and  spirit,  the  wholly  human  and  the  entirely  divine. 
The  exertion  and  the  effort  required  of  us  for  the  develop- 
ment of  the  higher  at  the  expense  of  the  lower,  is  the  measure 
of  our  earthly  education,  and  the  Father's  object  in  send- 
ing us  into  the  earthly  life.  A  man  may  always  know  where 
he  is,  if  he  honestly  desires  it,  by  unflinchingly  ascertaining 

>i<  171  >i* 


Jprag^rH  for  ©nliag 


which  set  of  impulses,  in  his  very  inmost  self,  his  true  secret 
self  (not  his  outer  show  self,  which  speaks  the  false  and 
conceals  the  true),  most  really  dominate  his  life.  Which  set 
of  impulses  do  you  imagine  most  affect  actions — those  which 
originate  in  thought,  or  those  which  originate  in  sensation? . . . 
Surely  those  which  originate  in  thought.  Thought  is  the 
raw  material  of  action;  identification  of  thought  with  the 
appetites  of  the  body  inevitably  results  in  breaches  of 
the  moral  law;  identification  of  thought  with  the  Christ 
within  cultivates  the  mind  to  right  action.  Thought  is 
creative,  thoughts  are  things.  What  "thought-atmosphere" 
are  we  creating  around  our  lives?  Our  loved  ones  in  the 
spirit  world  meet  us  in  our  "thought-atmosphere."  Coarse, 
angry,  vindictive,  selfish,  worldly  thoughts  build  a  barrier 
between  us  and  the  spirits  in  the  unseen  world.  What  pro- 
portion of  thought,  earnest,  concentrated,  determined 
thought,  do  any  of  us  give  in  the  course  of  twenty-four  hours 
to  the  revealed  mystery  of  the  indwelling  Christ,  to  the 
Infinite  Universal  Spirit  pulsing  through  all  things,  to  the 
soul-subduing  pathos  of  that  poem  of  a  life  hved  by  God 
Incarnate  between  Bethlehem  and  Calvary,  that  we  might 
know  the  kind  of  life  that  He  is  desiring  to  five  in  each  one 
of  us  now,  compared  with  our  anxious  planning  thoughts 
for  health  and  pleasure  and  business?  It  is  an  ordinary 
recognized  fact  of  our  common  humanity  that  strong 
thinking  in  a  particular  direction,  concentration  of  mind 
upon  one  Une  of  things,  shuts  out  other  sensations,  and, 
when  habitual,  causes  them  to  wither  and  die. 

Basil  Wilberforce. 

^  172  >i* 


Pragrra  for  (Uobag 


LXXXVI.   FOR  COMFORT  IN  THE 
PRESENCE  OF  DEATH 

OGOD!  From  everlasting  to  everlasting  Thou 
art  God.  Thy  years  fail  not.  Thine  eternity 
underlies  our  time,  giving  consistency  and  meaning 
to  our  lives — otherwise  we  indeed  spend  our  days 
as  a  tale  that  is  told.  We  think  of  life's  little  day, 
and  as  we  think  we  pray  that  we  may  apply  our 
hearts  unto  wisdom. 

While  it  is  still  day,  help  us  to  work  and  to  serve 
the  Eternal  Goodness.  We  think  of  death,  and  re- 
joice that  the  death  of  our  Lord  has  made  Him  the 
Lord  of  Death.  Be  Thou  with  us  in  the  valley  of 
the  shadow,  that  we  may  fear  no  evil.  And  at  even- 
time  may  there  be  light — and  may  there  be  the 
bridge  of  sunset  into  the  eternal  day. 

But,  O  God,  friend  after  friend  departs.  Who 
has  not  lost  a  friend?  We  grieve  for  the  touch  of 
a  vanished  hand  and  for  the  sound  of  a  voice  that 
is  still.  Do  Thou  comfort  and  sustain  us  with  Thy 
presence  and  Thy  love.  As  we  cherish  in  our  hearts 
the  image  of  those  we  have  loved  long  since  and 
lost  awhile,  so  we  trust  that  Thou  dost  in  Thy 
great  Father-Heart. 

We  trust  that  Thy  living  love  can  not  let  those 
that  are  loved  cease  to  be.  If  it  be  Thy  will, 
may  we  meet  again  in  Thy  presence,  where  we  shall 
be  satisfied  both  with  being  in  Thy  likeness  and 

4^  173  ^ 


^  JPray^rH  for  Sobag  ^ 

with  the  communion  of  souls  throughout  eternity. 
We  ask,  O  God,  in  Thy  name!    Amen. 


Meditation:     In  the  world  beyond  personal  identity  will  be 
preserved,  and  our  hope  of  mutual  recognition  is  justified. 

MEN  are  tempted  to  suppose  that  death  is  going  to 
be  an  impoverishment  of  our  personality.  But 
Scripture  seems  to  me  to  teach  the  very  opposite.  It 
teaches  that  death  will  be  the  means  not  of  impoverishing, 
but  of  glorifying  our  personality.  Identity  will,  therefore, 
we  might  conjecture,  be  rather  intensified,  purified,  aug- 
mented, than  obliterated  or  extinguished.  .  .  . 

The  powers  of  recollection  and  identification  may  fail 
here  on  earth  with  the  failure  of  the  nervous  system  and 
of  the  brain;  but  with  the  substitution  of  a  higher  and  a 
more  heavenly  instrument,  may  we  not  confidently  look 
for  an  increase  rather  than  a  diminution  in  the  faculties 
which  cement  love,  and  which,  in  spite  of  time  and  in  spite 
of  change,  permit  sympathy  and  deeper  friendship?  For- 
getfulness  is  not  a  sign  of  perfected  humanity;  rather 
it  is  a  sign  of  weakened  and  debilitated  brain  power.  .  .  . 
It  is  not,  therefore,  I  believe,  a  mere  metaphor  of  religious 
emotion  to  say  we  shall  meet  again,  we  shall  know  one 
another.  There  is  little  in  earthly  experience  that  can  be 
compared  with  the  joy  of  meeting  again. 

And  in  the  life  to  come  may  we  not  trust  Him  that  that 
joy,  that  wonderful  joy — better,  holier,  more  enduring 
than  aught  on  earth — wiU  not  be  taken  away  from  us? 

H.  E.  Ryle. 

►J^  174  >h 


^  jPragprfl  far  ©obag 


A  MEDITATIONAL  PRAYER  FOR  PEACE 

GIVE  peace  in  our  time,  O  Lord.  O  Thou  good 
Lord  and  lover  of  men,  again  and  again  we 
supplicate  Thee,  grant  us  Thy  peace.  Not  that 
peace  of  yesterday,  out  of  which  we  have  been 
awakened  and  of  which  we  are  now  ashamed,  a 
truce  which  under  the  name  of  peace  cloaked  the 
spirit  of  war,  while  some  prepared  their  weapons, 
and  all  sought  by  cunning  to  obtain  what  men  now 
manfully  battle  for — not  for  this  peace  in  name  do 
we  supplicate  Thee,  Thou  God  of  peace.  Not  that 
we  may  fulfil  our  greed  or  indulge  our  slothfulness, 
that  we  may  live  once  more  at  ease  and  return  to 
our  pleasures  and  exact  again  the  labors  of  the  poor 
— not  for  this  do  we  presume  to  make  our  petition 
unto  Thee,  O  God  of  righteousness.  Not  that  we 
may  see  our  desire  upon  our  enemies  do  we  dare 
to  pray  unto  Thee,  Thou  God  of  love.  Neither  do 
we  pray  alone  that  war  may  cease,  so  that  with 
immunity  from  danger  we  may  continue  to  hate  our 
enemies,  for  Thine  ears  are  closed  to  such  a  prayer, 
and  thou  hast  forbidden  us  to  desire  vengeance 
upon  our  adversaries.  But  we  pray  for  Thy  peace, 
which  is  of  the  heart.  Grant  us  now  Thy  peace, 
good  Lord,  in  righteousness  and  strong  endeavor 
and  in  love;  that  all  races  of  men  that  dwell  upon 
the  face  of  the  whole  earth  may  be  one,  as  Thou, 
Creator,  Father,  art  one;    that  by  the  exhortation 

*i*  175  *i* 


Prayers  fnr  ®ol>ag 


that  is  in  Christ,  by  the  incentive  that  is  in  love, 
by  the  fellowship  in  one  Spirit,  by  the  prompting 
of  tender  mercies  and  compassion,  men  may  be  of 
the  same  mind,  having  the  same  love,  of  one  accord, 
of  one  mind,  doing  nothing  through  faction  or 
through  vainglory,  but  in  lowliness  of  mind  each 
counting  other  better  than  himself;  not  looking 
each  to  his  own  things,  but  each  also  to  the  things 
of  others;  that  the  same  mind  may  be  in  us  all 
which  was  in  Christ  Jesus,  who  for  us  sinners  meekly 
put  aside  His  heavenly  glory,  and  for  love  of  men 
became  man,  and  was  among  us  as  one  that  serveth, 
who  humbled  Himself  even  unto  death,  yea,  the 
death  of  the  cross,  that  we,  practising  His  humility, 
might  be  exalted  together  with  Him,  who  now  liveth 
and  reigneth  with  Thee  and  the  Holy  Ghost  ever 
one  God,  world  without  end. 


176 


The  Editor  expresses  his  cordial  thanks  to  the 
Rev.  W.  Floyd  Tomkins  for  a  prayer  specially  con- 
tributed to  this  volume,  also  to  the  Rev.  Dr.  John 
H.  Jowett  and  the  Rev.  Walter  LowTie  for  permission 
to  make  use  of  prayers  composed  by  them,  and  to 
Mrs.  Mary  M.  Tileston  for  permission  to  quote  a 
prayer  written  by  the  Rev.  J.  R.  Miller  and  pub- 
lished in  Prayers  Ancient  and  Modern. 

Grateful  acknowledgment  must  be  made  also  of 
the  courtesy  extended  by  the  following  publishers  in 
their  ready  permission  of  the  use  of  material  specified: 
The  Macmillan  Company  for  extracts  from  Con- 
cerning Prayer,   by  B.   H.   Streeter  and  others; 
University  and  Cathedral  Sermons,  by  J.  R.  Illing- 
worth;   Jesus  Christ  and  the  Christian  Character, 
by   F.   G.   Peabody,   and   Christian   Life  in   the 
Modern    World,    by   the   same   writer;     Rational 
Living,  by  H.  C.  King;  Pascal  and  Other  Sermons, 
by   R.  W.  Church;   Gitatigali,  by  Sir  R.  Tagore; 
The  Drama  of  the  Spiritual  Life,  by  A.  L.  Sears; 
the  writings  of  F.  D.  Maurice;  Peace  and  Happi- 
ness, by  Lord  Avebury;  College  Sermons,  by  Ben- 
jamin Jowett. 
E.  P.  DuTTON  &  Co.  for  extracts  from  these  works 
(copyrighted  by  E.  P.  Button  &  Co.) :  The  Mystic 
Way,  by  Evelyn  Underbill,  pp.  45,  46;  The  Temple, 

^  177  'h 


by  W.  E.  Orchard,  pp.  29,  157;  The  Kingdom  of 
God,  by  L.  H.  Schwab,  pp.  98,  99;  The  Light  of 
the  World,  pp.  114,  115;  Visions  and  Tasks,  pp.  3,  4; 
Sermons  for  the  Christian  Year,  pp.  80,  81;  Sermons 
for  the  Church  Year,  pp.  350,  351 — these  last  four 
being  by  PhiUips  Brooks ;  Sermons,  Biographical  and 
Miscellaneous,  by  Benjamin  Jowett,  pp.  318,  319. 

Moffat,  Yard  &  Co.  for  extracts  from  The  Living 
Word,  by  the  Elwood  Worcester;  and  from  Re- 
ligion and  Medicine,  by  the  same  author  and 
others. 

The  University  of  Chicago  Press  for  two  prayers 
and  an  extract  from  a  sermon  published  in  a  vol- 
ume entitled,  University  of  Chicago  Sermons. 

Longmans,  Green  &  Co.  for  extracts'  and  prayers 
from  The  Concept  of  Sin,  by  F.  R.  Tennant; 
University  and  Other  Sermons,  by  Mandell  Creigh- 
ton;  Home  Prayers,  by  James  Martineau;  Prayers 
and  Meditations,  by  Henry  S.  Nash;  The  Christian 
Character,  by  Francis  Paget;  What  Ought  I  to  Do? 
by  G.  T.  Ladd. 

DoDD,  Mead  &  Co.  for  extracts  from  Wisdom  and 
Destiny  (copyrighted  by  Dodd,  Mead  &  Co., 
1898),  by  M.  Maeterhnck;  There  Is  No  Death, 
by  Basil  Wilberforce;  and  several  prayers  from 
A  Book  of  Prayers  for  Public  and  Personal  Use 
(copyrighted,  1912)  by  Samuel  McComb. 

George  W.  Jacobs  &  Co.  for  a  prayer  from  Bishop 
Brent's  book.  With  God  in  Prayer  (copyrighted, 
1907,  by  the  publishers). 

>i-  178  ^ 


*i<  Arkttomlptigmpnta  -^ 

John  Lane  Company  for  two  extracts  from  The 
Creed  of  Christ,  by  an  anonymous  writer. 

George  H.  Doran  Company  for  extracts  from  Mo- 
ments on  the  Mount  and  Voices  of  the  Spirit — 
both  by  George  Matheson;  and  The  Tivelve 
Prophets,  by  George  Adam  Smith. 

Oxford  University  Press  for  an  extract  from  A. 
Seth  Pringle-Pattison's  Idea  of  God  in  the  Light 
of  Recent  Research. 

Jennings  &  Graham  for  a  prayer  from  Lucy 
Rider  Meyer's  Some  Little  Prayers  (copyrighted 
by  the  pubhshers,  1907). 

Houghton  Mifflin  Co.  for  extracts  from  a  poem 
by  R.  W.  Gilder;  Moral  Evolution,  by  George 
Harris;  Personal  Power,  by  W.  J.  Tucker;  The 
Right  to  Believe,  by  E.  H.  Rowland;  On  Being 
Human,  by  Woodrow  Wilson;  Sin  and  Its  For- 
giveness, by  W.  De  Witt  Hyde;  Into  His  Mar- 
vellous Light,  by  T.  C.  Hall;  and  Faith,  Policy, 
and  War,  by  Gilbert  Murray. 

Henry  Holt  for  an  extract  from  Principles  of  Psy- 
chology, by  William  James. 

Thomas  Y.  Crowell  Company  for  prayers  from  G. 
A.  Miller's  Outdoor  Prayers. 

Chas.  Scribner's  Sons  for  extracts  from  Christian 
Ethics,  by  Newsman  Smyth;  two  prayers  by  R.  L. 
Stevenson;  Doctrine  of  Prayer,  by  James  Hastings. 

The  Vir  Publishing  Company  for  a  prayer,  p.  Ill 
of  the  book  entitled,  God's  Minute,  by  various 
clergymen. 

>i*  17!)  'i* 


Arknnmlp&gm^ntH 


Funk  &  Wagnalls  Company  for  an  extract  from 
Charles  Wagner's  Home  of  the  Soul. 

Kegan  Paul,  Trench,  Trubner  &  Co.  for  prayers 
from  George  Dawson's  Collection  of  Prayers. 

American  Unitarian  Association  for  a  prayer  in 
a  Book  of  Prayers,  by  Charles  J.  Ames. 

James  Maclehose  &  Sons  for  extracts  from  Lay 
Sermons  and  Addresses,  by  Edward  Caird;  Uni- 
versity Sermons,  by  John  Caird;  Robert  Browning 
as  a  Philosophical  and  Religious  Teacher,  by 
Henry  Jones. 

T.  &  T.  Clark  for  extracts  from  The  Knowledge 
of  God,  by  G.  M.  Gwatkin;  Formation  of  the 
Christian  Character,  by  W.  S.  Bruce;  and  Hand- 
book of  Christian  Ethics,  by  J.  C.  Mm-ray  (Amer- 
ican agent  Chas.  Scribner's  Sons), 

The  Pilgrim  Press  for  an  extract  from  Faith's  Cer- 
tainties, by  J.  Brierley;  and  for  prayers  from 
Closet  and  Altar,  by  I.  0.  Rankin;  For  God  and 
the  People,  by  Wal  ter  Rauschenbusch ;  and  Spoken 
Words  of  Prayer  and  Praise,  by  S.  A.  Tipple. 

The  Egyptian  Exploration  Fund  (Oxford  Uni- 
versity Press)  for  Grenfell  and  Hunt's  collection 
of  Newly  Discovered  Sayings  of  the  Lord. 

Fleming  H.  Revell  for  extracts  from  prayers  in 
Abba  Father,  by  W.  De  Witt  Hyde.  -V 


CENTRAL  UNIVERSITY  LIBRARY 
University  of  California,  Saji  Diego 

DATE  DUE 


FEB  28  1980 


rr^nnni 


Wi» 


JUL  18  1986 


OUH  2  5  1986 


lEE. 


rrn  (\  <^  ,r.n 


MAY  01  1987 


JftN  0  1  1988 
JAN  0  2  1983 
DEC  29 1988 

MAY  10  BECn 


TBS 


lOtlHi 

iri2 


1988 


CI  39 


VCSD  Libr. 


UC  SOUTH!  fiN  HI  (ilONAI  I  IDRAHY  I  ACUITY 


AA    000  906  93 


b    ■> 


